The war that raged in North America through the late 1750's and early 1760's was but one part of the larger struggle between England and France for dominance in world trade and naval power. The British victory in that struggle, known in Europe as the Seven years war, ended the long struggle among the three principal powers in northeastern North America: The English, the French, and the Iroquois Confederacy, it confirmed England's commercial supremacy and cemented its control of the settled regions of North America.
The French and the English had coexisted relatively peacefully in North America for nearly a century. But by the 1750's, as both English and French settlements expanded, religious and commercial tensions began to produce new frictions and new conflicts. The French had explored and claimed a vast region of the continental interior, ranging from Louisiana in the South to the Great Lakes in the North.…
