Seven Years' War | Animated History

I'm very pleased to announce that today's video is sponsored by the great courses plus more on that later hi I'm Griffin Johnson the armchair historian today's video the Seven Years War a war that actually spanned for nine years and was the first large-scale globe spanning conflict in history preceding the first world war by over a century and a half [Music] in our first video on the Seven Years War we're going to be covering the period from 1754 to 17 the conflict buckle in as our journey will take us from the wilderness of North America to the Mediterranean Sea and down to the tip of India in the evening of July 3rd 1754 a 22 year old leftenant colonel in the British militia sat inside a hastily constructed palisade ill-advisedly located at the bottom of a valley about 50 miles outside of modern-day Pittsburgh the Lieutenant Colonel had been handed a demand of surrender written in a language that he did not speak he signed it without realizing that he had just confessed his guilt in the assassination of Joseph du zum vinden an enemy officer killed five weeks earlier in a small skirmish in the contested Ohio Valley that spring in the early morning of July 4th he and his troops marched shamefully back from whence they came Juma views death and the humiliating defeat at Fort Necessity would ultimately steal both French and British resolve for a war that would engulf five continents for his part the young Virginian officer seemed to develop a taste for conflict despite the embarrassment of his first and only surrender his name was George Washington and he remarked in a letter to his brother I have heard bullets whistle and believe me there was something charming in the sound war had still technically not been declared yet following Washington's failed venture into the Ohio Valley General Edward Braddock was dispatched early the following year to show the future American president how a British gentlemen conducted himself in battle not well as it turns out Braddock led a force of more than 2,000 into the valley that spring he never made it to the French position of Fort Duquesne despite outnumbering the French and Native American garrison two-to-one meanwhile at sea Britain began fully exercising her naval power boarding and capturing hundreds of French merchant ships on July 9th 1755 just over a year after Washington's defeat Braddock's forces wandered into an ambush in which enemy soldiers fired down on them from the tree lines above losing nearly 1,000 men Braddock himself was mortally wounded in the excursion before we continue it is worth noting that American Indian troops played a major role in most of the battles in North America they more often supported the French but different tribes fought on each side in particular the Ojibwe tribe Wabanaki Confederacy Ottawa Shawnee Lenape and Huron tribes sided with the French the Iroquois Confederacy Catawba Indian nation and Mohican tribe sided with the British lastly the Cherokee Nation would fight against both countries at one point or another one of the few times that the British did manage to get the upper hand in America was when militia troops from Nova Scotia crossed the Mesa GWACs River into French Canada on June 16th Massachusetts militia led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moncton took control of Fort beauséjour a French position meant to project power throughout Acadia once he secured control of the area the British began what historian Fred Anderson has called possibly the first time in modern history that a civilian population was forcibly removed as a security risk this mass deportation called LeGrande de hajima ultimately resulted in the displacement of 11,500 people many of whom eventually died of disease or due to shipwrecks [Music] 17:56 saw great britain and france finally declare war on each other two years after the shooting started why reason number one is because it was the convention colonial powers typically let their subjects wage colonial wars without going to war themselves however to get the full answer will need to travel back to europe in 1748 this year saw the conclusion of the war of the austrian succession through the signing of the Treaty of ex la Chapelle which saw Maria Teresa retained the Habsburg throne and most of Europe's borders remaining stagnant with the exception of Prussia's acquisition of the resource-rich Silesia the somewhat inconclusive outcome to the war meant that an Austrian attempt to retake the territory was almost guaranteed in preparation for the war that he knew was coming Frederick the Great of Prussia began laying the groundwork to avoid being outnumbered by Austria's potential allies namely Russia he once wrote of all of our neighbors Russia is the most dangerous those who come after me will be well advised to cultivate those barbarians for they could ruin Prussia without fear of reprisal Frederick's fears were realized as in 1746 Austria and Russia signed a defensive alliance to try to circumvent that issue he made an alliance with Great Britain in January of 1756 in the convention of Westminster despite the country's treaty obligations to the Russian Empire Frederick also didn't bother resigning his pre-existing alliance with France because he assumed that the French would remain opposed to Austria regardless the Madame du Pompidou the court mistress of Louie the 15th who despised Frederick had the Kings ear Frederick assumed that she would urge Louie to stay out of war she did not France reluctantly signed the first Treaty of Versailles just four months later aligning themselves with the Austrians and Russians thanks to the cunning Austrian diplomat Wenzel Anton in a turn of events that should be familiar to those who have studied the first world war a tangle of alliances called the diplomatic revolution intended to preserve peace would eminently lead to the vicious outbreak of war the colonial struggle between Britain and France finally made its way to Europe when the French captured the British fort Saint Philippe on the island of Menorca in June this escalation mostly brought on by Britain's naval raids on French commerce was the primary reason for the declaration of war King George ii found of his holdings in Hanover knew the French would come after it soon she attempted to bring the Dutch into the war but they were indifferent to the cause realizing that a larger war was inevitable Frederick seized on what he saw as his only hope a preemptive strike on Saxony a sizeable Holy Roman Imperial state beginning in August in order to protect his flank he left some of his forces in East Prussia and Silesia to defend against attacks via Russia and Austria respectively Frederick had hoped to sweep through Saxony forcibly conscripted their army and appropriating their treasury before moving through bohemia and moravia to march on vienna but the Saxons put up a bitter fight at Dresden and Poorna and when the Saxon King finally did surrender in October it came at the expense of much more time and many more Prussian lives than Frederick had anticipated by the time he had made his winter headquarters the Austrians had successfully invaded and occupied the southern portion of Silesia things were going somewhat poorly for Frederick and to be British we're having difficulties in North America to losing fort bull and for William Henry before we go any further I'd like to call attention to William Pitt the British prime minister as of July 1756 his strategy to defeating the superior French army was to engage it on his terms he avoided mainland France to focus instead on its lesser defended colonies however the German state of Hanover under the same crown as Great Britain had to be protected so Pitts plan was twofold instead of pouring money into an out matched land army Pitt invested resources into supporting his Prussian allies whose ground forces had the capability to stand up to Frances primary force with Britain's European possessions protected pick could initiate the second part of his plan by opening up additional fronts across the globe in order to overextend the French in a war of attrition as he was confident that France could not contend with Britain's Navy with this plan in mind the following year saw the opening of a third theater of war as conflict broke out between the British and French East India Company's both European states were vying to fill the power vacuum left by the ailing Mughal Empire this theater called the third Carnatic war began with some smaller skirmishes in the south an inciting incident had taken place in the previous summer in Bengal where several British soldiers were imprisoned in the infamous black hole prison by the local ruler for three days with only a few surviving this was a factor leading to the first major battle which occurred when the British forces commanded by the renowned Colonel Robert Clive rested control of the French aligned Ben Gaul in the Battle of see in late June during this battle the British were outnumbered roughly 16 to 1 with no cavalry but we're still able to achieve victory this is partially due to a sudden rainfall that ruined the powder of the Indian Army believing the British also lost their powder which they had evidently kept safe the Indians too launched a cavalry charge only to be blown away by the British artillery in Europe Frederick had spent the spring cutting a bloody swath through Bohemia and eventually besieging Prague Austria's count Leopold fog down led a relief force that dislodges the embattled Prussian King at the Battle of Killeen in June that defeat as well as reports of a Russian invasion in East Prussia forced Frederick to turn back Russians arena Elizabeth's men had taken mammal but had been unable to go further due to the element that stops any force in Eastern Europe logistics meanwhile the French had launched an assault on Hanover against a British led army the French achieved victory in the Battle of Hostin Bek outnumbering their foes by 25,000 this resulted in a peace treaty between the French and Hanover in September called the convention of costed Savin needless to say this wasn't something Frederick was all too happy about at this point the last thing Frederick needed was yet another enemy and you know what he got another enemy Sweden smelled blood and invaded Pomerania that summer the British and Prussians were now severely outnumbered despite the odds stacked against him Frederick won two decisive battles in November and December first he defeated the French at the Battle of Rostov on November 5th and then a month later he routed the Austrians at the Battle of Lloyd despite being heavily outnumbered Frederick always considered lightin to be his greatest achievement but it did not change the fact that he was still fighting an uphill battle Maria Theresa's husband Francis the first successfully rallied many of these smaller German principalities against Prussia as Austria and France began their full-scale invasions meanwhile george ii disavowed the convention of clustered saven and Hanna re-entered the war command was given to Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick who was able to lead the forces of Hanover to victory against the French in the spring he drove them across the Rhine and kept Prussia's western borders secure for the rest of the conflict in North America the French continued to rack up wins against the British including the infamous defeat at Fort William Henry in August in which almost the entire British garrison 2,500 troops was captured this state of affairs changed in 1758 with the British finally seeing some success in this theater though the French held on to Fort carrion and with it most of the Hutt's Valley the British were able to capture Louie boar in Canada and fort duquesne that troublesome French position in Pennsylvania that started all of this Duquesne was renamed Fort Pitt roughly located in today's downtown Pittsburgh in India most of the British forces were tied up in Bengal that left an opening for the remaining French and their allies to attack fort Saint David and the city of Madras they successfully captured the fort however heavy monsoon rains and poor preparation costs them precious time during their advance on the city by the time they began their siege it was December and the British were preparing for a counter-attack after a month of fighting and siege work six British ships loaded with men supplies and gums breached the blockade forcing the French to withdraw back in Europe Frederick spent the early months of 1758 attempting and then aborting another incursion into Moravia meanwhile the Russians re-entered East Prussia which they would hold on to for the next four years the Russians did not advance much farther due to supply line limitations that led to shortages in ammunition and food in August Frederick made an attempt to expel Elizabeth's troops at the Battle of torn dwarf with 42,000 men the Russians outnumbered Frederick by nearly 6,000 with both sides taking heavy casualties the bloody battle ended in conclusively the final major event of the European theater this year came in October after Frederick misread his adversaries in tension this time in the saxon village of hawker count found out whom frederick had fought with the year before had a reputation as an overly cautious commander who never attacked unless he had perfect positioning and visibility since colleen frederick had repeatedly failed to goad fawn down into battle and began to believe that the austrian commander would never make his move but as the church bell struck five o'clock in the morning on October 14th 80,000 Austrian soldiers began their attack while the Prussians were still sleeping in their tents fighting in the streets of the town was brutal but the battle only lasted five hours despite putting up a good fight Frederick's 35,000 men could not hope to fend off the vastly superior Austrian force for long at 10:15 the Prussians were in full retreat leaving behind almost all of their artillery and around 90 400 men dead were captured nearly a third of their army the battle could have been a death blow if found down had chosen to press his advantage instead the count reaffirmed his supremely cautious reputation choosing not to pursue this gave Frederick's forces all the time they needed to lick their wounds and come back with a vengeance a 1758 came to a close the 18th century's world war was in full swing even though the Anglo prussian alliance was being beaten back on all fronts the two powers were far from defeating the expenditure of blood and treasure would last for another five years and caused upheaval the world over more on this unprecedented conflict next time in the Seven Years War part two in our last video you saw how colonial skirmishes and diplomatic twists started to the 18th century's very own world war in this video we'll be discussing one more diplomatic reversal that managed to completely change the course of history before we get to that let's start off today's video with a completely unnecessary excuse for me to play with the reverb settings on my microphone it's 1758 and in one corner we have France Russia and Austria who have been stopping the competition in Central Europe and in the other we have the anglo-russian alliance in serious need of a cut Minh but considering the fact that today the United States official language is not French you may have guessed that things turned around for the British and Prussians you'd be right but it didn't happen immediately [Music] Frederick had just suffered the greatest military disaster of his career after a string of defeats at ke and Maxim on the fields of Kerner's Dorf a name that would haunt Frederick's memory forever Prussian forces attempted an ambitious double and development hoping to overwhelm the Austrian and Russian armies massed near the oder river but Frederick had used this tactic a variation of the oblique order before and his enemies were ready for it the Russians had heavily weighed their forces in the center and were able to dispatch reinforcements with east wherever the Prussians attacked the battle marks the only time forces under Frederick himself broke order and retreated in total disarray Frederick's allies meanwhile enjoyed a reversal of fortune after successfully defeating the French in Madras India British forces won a series of victories all over the globe in a turn of events that should be thoroughly unsurprising to anyone who's ever read up on British history they began to utterly dominate the war at sea the Royal Navy was victorious at Guadeloupe Lagos and kiba on bay decisively extinguishing any threat of French invasion on the British mainland the ground forces in North America complemented these maritime triumphs after capturing the newly christened Fort Pitt the previous year British regular and colonial forces spent that spring securing their hold of the western frontier with victories at Fort Niagara and Fort carrion which gave them control of the Hudson Valley with that front secured it was time to move north all summer British forces under General James Wolfe lay siege to Quebec leading to the Battle of the plains of Abraham on September 13th yet another British success however wolf would not live to see his officers march through the streets as both he and the French commander Louise Joseph de Montcalm were killed in the fighting as 1759 drew to a close British supremacy abroad had been confirmed and they were well on their way to supplanting France as the premier global power the following year 1760 proved equally auspicious for the British on the battlefield but also saw the death of their king george ii died on October 25th possibly on the toilet that fact is not particularly important but the writer threatened to quit if we cut that from the script anyways he was succeeded by his grandson George the third who would oversee further victories around the globe in India where the British had actually been fighting the French and Indians Britain scored a decisive victory at the Battle of Wandy wash in January despite being outnumbered by 2,000 they then launched a renewed offensive and by September the French army and their remaining allies were trapped in their colonial capital at Pondicherry during the grueling three-month siege that followed civilians died in droves by early next year the French garrison surrendered and the British were victorious in India in North America the Redcoats and their colonial allies seized on the momentum that they had gained through the capture of Quebec to win several more easy victories that summer throughout the course of the war French support among Native American tribes operating in Ohio and Canada had steadily eroded the Shawnee and Lenape had made a separate peace with Britain in 1758 while many of these so-called Mission Indians those who had converted to Catholicism continued to fight up through 1760 at which point they too abandoned the war effort though some sporadic fighting did continue that year essentially meant the end of French Canada and the last major conflict in the theatre unsurprisingly Native Americans both who had aided French and British allies ultimately got the short end of the stick but more on that later so how were things going for Frederick in Central Europe this year I think solidly mediocre would be a reasonable way to describe this situation the Swedes took control of a significant swathe of Pomerania in January while the French took Marburg and the Austrians captured the Silesian city of Klotz that last defeat was especially damaging to Frederick's pride because the Austrian commander Aaron Stephane Loudon had once sought employment in his army but was rebuffed Frederick quickly struck back at him though defeating the Austrian forces at Leibnitz in August the following month brought an utterly humiliating defeat when Russian and Austrian troops captured and held Berlin from October 9th to the 12th despite the rather short occupation it was still a terrible blow to Prussia morale in keeping with the trend of Frederick winning battles while losing the war he ended the year with a success at the Battle of torgul one that came at a heavy price a third of his troops as New Year's Day 1761 came and went the Seven Years War had seemingly contracted and appeared to be making a decisive end India and North America were no longer the sites of large-scale warfare and the British Empire had established supremacy in both theaters in Central Europe however the walls were closing in on Frederick [Music] Prussians and Hanoverians looked West to try to stymie the French but in doing so left kohlberg open to a Russian assault in December Elizabeth's forces took the city Russia's final port on the Baltic Sea creating a two-fold problem for the besieged Frederick Russia's greatest weakness it's chronic supply problems had just been resolved and Prussia's access to British naval assistance was curtailed not that the Brits were feeling especially helpful in fact the newly crowned George the 3rd was significantly less committed to supporting the Prussian cause than his predecessor had been George the 3rd immediately suspended financial aid to the beleaguered German state likely as the first step towards suing for peace after all the British had won in the corners of the world where they had fought so why should it be their problem if their Ally couldn't pull its own weight by now things were looking grim er than ever for the Prussians exact numbers are hard to find but by the years ends the maximum number of troops he had at his disposal was probably around sixty thousand who were up against hundreds of thousands of the combined French Austrian Russian and Swedish armies the hour was late and the enemies were at the door it was a foregone conclusion that Berlin would soon be under siege his only hope it seemed to him was the Ottomans it was a bit of a long shot to say the least but Frederick had been making diplomatic overtures to the Sultan for years and he thought that maybe just maybe they would start to bear fruit they ultimately didn't join but more than enough happened early in the year for things to remain interesting 1762 saw two new powers entering the war a full eight years after the conflict broke out in North America Spain's new king charles the third hope to capitalise on the weakness of Portugal still recovering from the disastrous 1755 Lisbon earthquake since Britain was most likely to challenge them in that regard and had important economic and diplomatic ties to Portugal he was quite receptive to French support to join the war the French in return hoped that the British would either have to divert troops to defend their allies or lose in a source of material and financial support perhaps alleviating some of the pressure from their most powerful adversary on January 4th war between Britain and Spain had begun the conflict was marked by three failed invasions of Portugal by Spanish and French troops throughout the year each one repulsed by the Lusitania pnes and their British allies a number of troops were mobilised in Brazil as well and the neighbouring Spanish colonies in South America but actual battlefield casualties were very rare and deaths were almost exclusively a result of disease as if this turn wasn't stunning enough Empress Elisabeth of Russia died exactly a day after the war in the peninsula broke out leaving Russia's commitment to the war effort in doubt as it turned out Elizabeth's successor Peter the 3rd was something of a frederick fanboy and almost immediately sued for peace despite Russia's highly advantageous position frederick anxious to end hostilities promptly offered East Prussia to the Russians but much to the entirety of Europe surprise Peter refused all he wanted was to be given the order of the black eagle a chivalric honor awarded by the Prussian government presumably with a bewildered shrug frederick agreed and Peter placed most of the Russian troops under Frederick's command who joined the Prussians in the field by June 1762 Sweden which had only really entered the war opportunistically simply said nope and backed out of the war meanwhile Frederick took this opportunity to reinvent Elisha but the new Russo Prussian Alliance did not last long as Peter was deposed and killed in a coup organized by his own wife and Frederick's distant cousin Catherine the second in July having successfully gameofthrones her husband the newly widowed Empress withdrew her armies from Central Europe probably because the plot twists were becoming too unbelievable before they left however they did help contribute to one more Prussian victory at Berger's Dorf where frederick allegedly bribed the russian commander to stay put for a little while the austrians underfund down assumed the Prussians had more fresh troops available and retreated handing a victory france's crushing defeats in India North America and Portugal as well as Austria's in Silesia had fatally drained both countries Treasuries seeing Austrian prospects for the reconquest of Silesia disappear and suffering under a brutal British blockade Louis soon sued for peace the Austrians were not far behind the official peace treaties would not be signed until the next year but for all intents and purposes the Seven Years War was over [Music] the first of two documents that ended the war was the Treaty of Paris no not that one nope nope nope yep that's the one signatories of this treaty included Great Britain France and Spain with Portugal being expressly included under the terms of the treaty certain possessions that had been captured during the war like the many sugar rich Caribbean islands and part of the African colony of Senegal were returned to their original owners nonetheless in terms of territory Britain was the biggest winner France renounced all claims in India made since 1749 they also gave Britain all territory in North America east of the Mississippi except New Orleans that was given to Spain as compensation for Florida which had in turn also been ceded to Great Britain speaking of North America as we already mentioned the Native Americans living in eastern Canada and the Ohio Valley now had to deal almost exclusively with the British some like the Mi'kmaq sand certain members of the Iroquois Confederacy felt compelled to ally with them with many eventually fighting on the British side during the American Revolution before eventually aligning with the British many Native American tribes made war with their new Imperial overlords reigning in Ohio in Pontiacs rebellion which started in 1763 hoping to stern the violence George the 3rd issued the royal proclamation of 1763 later that year thereby forbidding the settlement of lands west of the Appalachian Mountains the colonists who had just fought a war in part to take said land from the French promptly ignored it in Central Europe Prussia Austria and Saxony signed the treaty of Hubertus Berg five days after the Treaty of Paris bringing an official end to the Silesian theater of war the terms of peace returned clots to Prussia and reconfirmed its control over Silesia in return for the prussian evacuation of saxony the war in this theater had proven that frederick was an exceptional battlefield commander and pressure was a force to be reckoned with but it also demonstrated it would need strong allies in any future conflict Austria and Russia meanwhile had proven themselves competent military powers that could keep up with Western Europe's finest a truly global conflict arguably the first of its kind the Seven Years War had a profound impact on the world Britain's supremacy in both North America and India was solidified while France began a precipitous decline we didn't talk much about the conflict in West Africa since it was mostly confined to small British expeditions against wealthy French colonies but it does emphasize how far-reaching the war was battles fought on four continents placed an enormous logistical and financial strain on all of the powers involved the economic woes that ensued are widely seen as a major cause for both the American and French Revolutions the year 1763 may have been the end of the Seven Years War but its outcome would reverberate down these centuries and shape the world as we live in today if you want to learn more about the Seven Years War then I highly recommend you watch professor Daniel M Cobbs 7 Years War in Indian country which deals with the effects that the outcome of the Seven Years War had on Native Americans that lecture is only available on the website of today's sponsor the great courses plus the great courses plus is a subscription on-demand learning service with some of the best lectures and courses from top Ivy League professors by subscribing you will gain access to a massive library with over 11,000 video lectures about any academic subject like history science math literature music philosophy and more another personal favorite lecture of mine is Professor Gregory s alder essays 1759 Quebec battle for North America which covers the battle at the plains of Abraham that I mentioned earlier in this video we invite you to start your free trial at the great courses plus today by using my link the great courses plus comm slash armchair historian or by clicking the link in the description below you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 3,412,213

Keywords: The Seven Years' War, French and Indian War, Frederick the Great, Prussian History, French History, World War, History Battle, Historical Battle, Wars, 1700's, 18th Century, Battle of Plassey, British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, Battle of Leuthen, Battle of Rossbach

Id: RBUWHUKvvec

Length: 32min 37sec (1957 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019