War in North America

Abstract

Abstract This chapter traces the progress and outcomes of the Seven Years’ War in North America, with an emphasis on the role of Indigenous combatants. The hybrid military culture of New France was decisive in the early engagements of the war. Deteriorating French alliances with Indigenous nations, coupled with strengthened British-Indigenous alliances and the British colonies’ large demographic advantage, tipped the balance to Britain and decided the outcome in North America. In the postwar settlement, France and Spain ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain. For French officials, the defeat was a humiliation that led to corruption trials against leading veterans. For Britain, the war set the stage for new pressures on North American lands. War veterans led many initiatives to establish new settlements. These pressures were one key factor contributing to the breakdown of the British empire in mainland North America.