Beginning in the late 1600s, a series of wars swept across Europe, all of which involved the British and their American colonies. These wars were fought not only on the European continent, but all over the globe, both on land and at sea. Virtually every one of those conflicts saw fighting in America, pitting British regulars and colonial militia against French and Spanish opponents. The European components of those wars often dealt with issues of little or no concern to the Americans, but the colonists were often affected directly or indirectly by the outcomes, sometimes to their detriment. Americans often fought alongside British regulars and contributed significantly to gains on the battlefield, only to see the fruits of their efforts bargained away by treaties being made far across the ocean.
Native Americans were involved in these wars as well, and they fought on both sides. Most tribes sided with the French, who were more interested in trade with Indians than in colonization. Those who sided with the British may have recognized that the growth of British colonies meant that they would be in North America well into the future, and it would pay to be on their side. In either case, the Indians did whatever seemed to be in their own best interest; as often as not, they were caught in the middle and paid a price for it.
Each of these wars dealt with Empire—indeed, the last of them, which we know as the French and Indian War (the Seven Years' War in Europe) has been called the "Great War for Empire." The net result of all of them was that Great Britain stood alone in command of most of North America—at least everything north of Mexico and east of the Mississippi. The Indian threat, which had been made worse because of the Indian alliances with the French, was significantly reduced, and the Americans in 1763 could feel secure within their borders. From fighting in these wars the Americans gained military experience as well as a sense of strength. Though they were not ready for any sort of union by 1763, they had begun to realize that in serious matters they had more in common with their colonial neighbors than they had previously believed.
The colonial wars demonstrate how American history was constantly affected by events in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. When King Louis the XIV of France—the "Sun King"—came to power in 1660, he sought to increase French power in Europe by starting what became a series of dynastic and imperial wars. His belligerent attitude led to the formation of states aligned against France, the League of Augsburg, or Grand Alliance. When Louis invaded the Rhineland in 1688, the war was soon underway.
In America, the aim of these wars was to secure colonial territory against encroachment by rival powers and generally pitted Great Britain against France. France was aggressive in trying to contain the expansion of British colonies and employed Indians as allies. Indian tribes in the Northeast had fought with the American colonists prior to that time, as in the bitter King Philip's War of 1675-1676, in which hundreds of colonists and Native Americans died when a coalition of tribes attacked colonial settlements.
These major wars were interspersed with periods of shaky peace and episodes of lesser conflict among the major powers. Each of these wars was fought in Europe among the British, French, Spanish, Russians, Germans, Austrians, and other players. In addition to being struggles over power on the European continent, these wars also affected the imperial domains of the nations concerned; thus many of them were fought not only in North America but on other parts of the globe where the European powers were struggling to build colonial empires. These wars also had religious implications, as Catholic and Protestant nations were often at odds, with issues left over from the bitter Thirty Years' War of 1618-1648.
Most colonists considered their participation in these wars part of their duties as members of the British Empire, and the Empire looked at it in the same way. The colonists, however, were frustrated when these wars were terminated by treaties that left the colonists wondering what they had been fighting for. For example, in one of those conflicts the colonists at great expense to themselves captured the French fortress of Louisburg in Nova Scotia. At the end of the war, however, the fortress was returned to the French as part of the peace settlement.
The last of these wars, the Seven Years' or French and Indian War, was important for several reasons. First, the American contribution was substantial, and many Americans, including a young Virginia planter named George Washington, received combat experience that would serve them well in the coming revolution.
These wars served as a constant reminder to the colonists that they were indeed part of the British Empire. While the threat of the Indians on the frontier was constant, the colonists valued the presence of British regulars as part of their defense against Indian attacks. As time went on, however, the colonists grew ever more ambivalent about the value of having British soldiers in their midst. As the colonies grew in size and became stronger, their resentment against British interference in their lives grew slowly but inexorably. There was a price to pay for being part of the British Empire, and hundreds of colonists paid that price dearly.
These imperial or colonial wars, sometimes known collectively as the "Second Hundred Years' War," will be discussed in greater detail in the following section on the American Revolution.
World History
