How long was the Seven Years’ War?

‘Easy’, you might say, ‘it’s in the name. Seven years.’ And you’d be right to say that … kind of.

The Seven Years’ War was the culmination of years of Anglo-French rivalry and the broader question of who was to control the entire world, specifically North America, India, and the trade and peoples therein. As violence broke out in Europe, North America, South America, India, and Africa, the war was a global one; some might say the first true ‘World War’.

As such, the natural follow-up to the question ‘How long was the Seven Years’ War?’ should be, ‘Well … for whom?’

Until the nineteenth century, we in the English language liked to name wars after the period of time they encompassed, perhaps none more famous than the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) and the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648).

The problem with this paint by numbers method is that wars that break out on a global scale don’t necessary start and end on the same dates.

These wars are thus ‘umbrella wars’, a term used by Jeremy Black to explain why regional conflicts can be deemed indecisive in the grand scheme of things as umbrella wars ‘comprehended a number of different conflicts’.[1] Decisive battles in one regional theatre did not end the umbrella war. As Geoffrey Parker wrote, ‘wars still eternalized themselves’, the Battle of Poltava did not end the Great Northern, nor did the battles of Blenheim or Ramillies end the War of the Spanish Succession.[2]

Put simply, an umbrella war is a very big war that encompasses a number of regional conflicts across the globe. The war will have an epicentre (usually European) as well as a number of different regional theatres, such as North America and India, which fall under the general ‘umbrella’ of the wider war.

Now we’ve come to the crux of the ‘Problem of the Seven Years’ War’. Historians from different countries within these global regions may refer to the war by different names:

The very fact that the terms ‘French and Indian War’ and ‘Third Silesian War’ became part of the English-language historical parlance shows that conceptualizations of the various regional conflicts continue to shape assumptions about the scope of the Seven Years’ War.[3]

Below I have provided a handy conversion table detailing the names of Anglo-French umbrella wars and their respective regional theatres between 1689 and 1763.

Umbrella War Europe North America India South America The War of the League of Augsburg 1688 – 1697 The Nine Years’ War King William’s War First Intercolonial War – – The War of the Spanish Succession 1701 – 1714 Ibid. Queen Anne’s War Second Intercolonial War – – The War of the Austrian Succession 1740 – 1748 Ibid. First Silesian War Second Silesian War Russo-Swedish War War of Jenkins’ Ear King George’s War Third Intercolonial War First Carnatic War – The Seven Years’ War 1756 – 1763 Ibid. Third Silesian War Pomeranian War French and Indian War Fourth Intercolonial War Third Carnatic War The Fantastic War

There are of course many asterisks to this table. Firstly, it does not include the Jacobite Uprisings between 1689 and 1759. Secondly, it does not include any of the so-called American Indian Wars from 1609 to 1766. Thirdly, I have not included any dates for the regional theatres for fear of crowding the table. Lastly, you may have noticed the Second Carnatic War falls outside of an umbrella … we’ll get to this.

So what are these wars? Are they each unique conflicts with their own definitive start and end dates? Are they World Wars? Or, are these umbrella wars phases of a wider continuous conflict much like the Edwardian, Caroline, and Lancastrian Phases of the Hundred Years’ War?

The guerres intercoloniale, as the French call them, and the numbered Silesian and Carnatic wars suggest that they are all connected, but somehow distinct. Thus, I am going to propose a number of different answers to the problem of length, with each being more convoluted than the last.

Option 1: The Seven Years’ War was 7 years long.

The Seven Years’ War was officially declared by George II on 17 May 1756 and ended on 10 February 1763 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. This makes the war 6 years 8 months and 25 days long; rounded up to 7 years. Simple.

Cause of war: The French invasion of Minorca.

… but it being now evident, by the hostile Invasion actually made by the French King of Our Island of Minorca, that it is the determined Resolution of that Court to hearken to no Terms of Peace, but to carry on the War, which has been long begun on their Part, with the utmost Violence, We can no longer remain, consistently with what We owe to Our own Honour, and to the Welfare of Our Subjects, within those Bounds, which, from a Desire of Peace, We had hitherto observed.[4]

Option 2: The Seven Years’ War was 9 years long.

The King’s declaration of war refered to Britain’s ‘earnest Desire of Peace’ and hoped the French would ‘disavow this Violence and Injustice’, before deciding to ‘carry on the War’. These phrases suggest that the war had already begun, and the declaration simply made it legal.

There is another clue within the declaration that reads,

… in the Month of April, [1754], they broke out in open Acts of Hostility, when, in Time of profound Peace, without any Declaration of War, and without any previous Notice given, or Application made, a Body of French Troops, under the Command of an Officer bearing the French King’s Commission, attacked in a hostile Manner, and possessed themselves of the English Fort on the Ohio in North America.[5]

This refers to the Battle of Jumonville Glen, a brief skirmish fought on 28 May 1754 between French-Canadian officer Joseph Coulon de Jumonville and Virginia’s Lieutenant Colonel George Washington. Although Britain believed, ‘notwithstanding this Act of Hostility, which could not but be looked upon as a Commencement of War’.

However, after the later Battle of Fort Necessity (3 July 1754), the defeated Washington was forced to sign Articles of Capitulation that admitted his guilt to the ‘assassination’ of Jumonville.[6] Although it is worth noting these Articles were written entirely in French, a language Washington could not speak.

Extracts of Washington’s diary, designed to paint him in a negative light, were published in a 1756 French government document snappily entitled Memorial Containing the Summary of the Facts, with Supporting Documents, to Serve as Reply to the Observations Sent by the Ministers of England to the Courts of Europe.

If we take the Battle of Jumonville Glen as the beginning of open hostilities in the Americas, then the war lasted from 28 May 1754 until the Treaty of Paris. The war was thus 8 years, 8 months, and 14 days long, or 9 years.

Cause of war: The Battle of Jumonville Glen.

Option 3: The Seven Years’ War was 22 years long.

Back to the declaration of war we go, this time to the first sentence:

The unwarrantable Proceedings of the French in the West Indies, and North America, since the Conclusion of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, and the Usurpations and Encroachments made by them upon Our Territories, and the Settlements of Our Subjects in those Parts, Particularly in Our Province of Nova Scotia, have been so notorious, and so frequent, that they cannot but be looked upon as a sufficient Evidence of a formed Design and Resolution in that Court, to pursue invariable such Measures, as should most effectually promote their ambitious Views, without any Regard to the most solemn Treaties and Engagements.[7]

That’s quite the sentence.

Essentially it suggested that since the conclusion of the War of the Austrian Succession, the French had ignored treaties and had continually encroached on British land.

On top of this, the War of the Austrian Succession had ended unsatisfactorily for Britain and France in terms of their overseas ambitions. While Maria Theresa retained the thrones of Austria and Hungary, and Prussia formally gained Silesia, the Austrian Netherlands and most overseas territory in the Americas were returned status quo ante bellum.

The War of the Austrian Succession also encompassed the First and Second Silesian Wars and the First Carnatic War under its umbrella.

The Second Carnatic War took place between 1749 and 1754, neatly in between the two major umbrella wars of the 40s and 50s. Hostilities then resumed in the Third Silesian and Third Carnatic Wars in 1756, as the Seven Years’ War broke out across the globe.

Grouping the numbered Silesian and Carnatic wars under one umbrella creates an even bigger war that began in 1740 and ended in 1763, with a brief 2-year peace between 1754 and 1756.

This period wholly encompasses the Silesian Wars: the rivalry between Prussia and Austria, and the beginning of Prussia’s ascent to a superpower. It also encompasses the Carnatic Wars, the wars fought between the French East India Company and the British East India Company for control of the subcontinent.

Beginning 16 December 1740 and ending 10 February 1763, this double umbrella war was 22 years, 1 month, and 26 days long.

Cause of war: The succession of Maria Theresa to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

Option 4: The Seven Years’ War was 60 years long.

The war in North America was not just fought between the Thirteen Colonies and New France, but the many Native American tribes acting as allies or neutral observers too.

The Great Lakes region is home to one of the largest areas of forest and waterways in the world, and 60 million people today. In 1750, it was dotted with Native American villages and colonial outposts used for conducting trade between the empires and natives. Beaver and muskrat fur, and buffalo and deer hide were the region’s principal exports.

By the end of the Seven Years’ War the dynamic had changed. The French were ousted from the region and so ended the ‘father-son’ (Onontio) relationship the tribes enjoyed with the Governor-General of New France.

The region was now contested by Great Britain and, later, the new republic of the United States of America. Furthermore, grain came to dominate the biggest export, and so began a period of conflict from 1754 to 1814 for control over the regional balance.[8]

This period is labelled the Sixty Years’ War; a term coined by David Skraggs and built on in the book The Sixty Years’ War for the Great Lakes. It includes 6 phases:

The French and Indian War (1754-1763) Pontiac’s War (1763-1765) Lord Dunmore’s War (1774) The western theatre of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) Northwest Indian War (1785-1795) The War of 1812 (1812-1814)

Cause of war: Trade and control over native lands.

Option 5: The Seven Years’ War was part of a wider Second Hundred Years’ War.

Now, depending on how you count this Second Hundred Years’ War, it can either be 101 years long or 126 years long. Bear with me.

The term ‘Second Hundred Years’ War’ first appeared in Sir John Seeley’s 1883 book The Expansion of England. It presented a 100-year period from the defeat of Louis XIV in the War of the Spanish Succession (1714) to the second defeat of Napoleon in 1815. 101 years.

Others take the period back to the succession of Queen Anne and King William III & II to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1689 and the beginning of the Nine Years’ War.

Each umbrella war in this period acted like phases of a wider war interspersed with periods of peace.

Beginning on 27 September 1689 and ending 20 November 1815, the Second Hundred Years’ War lasted 126 years, 1 month, and 25 days.

Cause of war: Anglo-French rivalry and the importance of overseas empire.

Option 6: The Seven Years’ War was part of a wider 73-year long conflict.

If you’re not totally convinced by the Second Hundred Years’ War, then this answer might be for you. After all, the French Revolution happened in 1789 and the ancien régime was overthrown and executed: a quite literal ‘out with the old’.

This means the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) were fought against a new political institution and Napoleon, a man who built a new empire from the wreckage.

Taking the importance of North American colonial territories, and the wars fought between the colonies (intercoloniale), we have a period of intermittent warfare stretching between 1690 and 1763.

Beginning with the outbreak of the First Intercolonial War on 5 September 1690 and ending with the Treaty of Paris, this ‘Intercolonial’ period lasted 72 years, 5 months, and 6 days.

Cause of war: Anglo-French rivalry and the importance of transatlantic empire.

Option 7: The Seven Years’ War was part of a wider 205-year long invasion of America.

North America was not a virgin land when it was (re-)discovered by Europeans in the sixteenth century. From the English founding of Jamestown in 1607 and the French founding Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1605, Native Americans were beset by two centuries of war with the French, British, and Americans.

Many anthropologists and historians described this 205-year period as an ‘Invasion of America’ from the outbreak of the Beaver Wars (1609) to the end of the War of 1812 (1814).

In the biting words of Francis Jennings,

The conquerors of America glorified the devastation they wrought in visions of righteousness, and their descendants have been reluctant to peer through the aura. Decent men with pigmentless skins no longer overtly espouse delusions of peculiar grandeur, but the myths created by the cant of conquest endure in many forms to mask the terrible tragedy that was Europe’s glory … In it the Christian Caucasians of Europe are not only holy and white but also civilised, while the pigmented heathens of distant lands are not only idolatrous and dark but savage.[9]

The question is whether this ‘invasion’ ever truly ended.

And so, if you are ever asked how long the Seven Years’ War was, you better be prepared to regurgitate this entire article verbatim. Or, perhaps the more socially acceptable option would be to shrug and say, ‘Seven years, I guess.’

Either way, you should always remember the importance of umbrellas for Great Britain.

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[1] Jeremy Black, A Military Revolution: Military Change and European Society 1550-1800 (London: Macmillan Press Ltd., 1991), p. 27

[2] ibid., and Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 43

[3] Mark H. Danley, The Seven Years’ War: Global Views (Boston: Brill, 2012), xxiv

[4] ‘His Majesty’s Declaration of War against the French King’ in London Gazette, 15 May to 18 May 1756, Issue 9583

[5] ibid.

[6] Culm Villiers, “Washington’s Capitulation at Fort Necessity, 1754” in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 6, 3 (Jan., 1899), pp. 268-270, p. 269

[7] ‘His Majesty’s Declaration of War’, op. cit.

[8] David Curtis Skraggs, and Larry L. Nelson (eds.), The Sixty Years’ War for the Great Lakes, 1754-1814 (Michigan: Michigan State University Press, 2001), p. 2

[9] Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and The Cant of Conquest (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1975) p. 6