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The Seven Years' War was fought between 1755 and 1764, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved most of the great powers of the time and affected Europe, North America, Central America, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. Considered as the greatest European war since the Thirty Years War of the 17th-century, it once again split Europe into two coalitions, each led by Great Britain and France, respectively. For the first time, aiming to curtail Britain and Prussia's ever-growing power, France formed a grand coalition of her own. In the historiography of some countries, the war is named after combatants in its respective theatres: the French and Indian War in the United States. In French-speaking Canada, it is known as the War of the Conquest, while it is called the Seven Years' War in English-speaking Canada (North America, 1754–1763), Pomeranian War (with Sweden and Prussia, 1757–1762), Third Carnatic War (on the Indian subcontinent, 1757–1763), and Third Silesian War (with Prussia and Austria, 1756–1763). Conflict between Great Britain and France broke out in 1754–1755 when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America and seized hundreds of French merchant ships. Meanwhile, rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. In 1756, the major powers "switched partners". Realizing that war was imminent, Prussia preemptively struck Saxony and quickly overran them. The result caused great uproar across Europe. Because of Prussia's alliance with Britain, Austria sought to recapture Silesia which was lost in the previous war by forming an alliance with France. The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by smaller German states (especially Hanover). Sweden, fearing Prussia's expansionist tendencies, went to war in 1757 to protect her Baltic dominions, seeing the chance that all Europe virtually opposed Frederick. Spain, bound by the Pacte de Famille, intervened on behalf of France and jointly launched a disastrous invasion of Portugal in 1762. The Russian Empire was originally aligned with Austria, fearing Prussia's ambition on the Commonwealth, but switched sides upon the succession of Tsar Peter III in 1762. The taxation needed for war caused the Russian people considerable hardship, being added to the taxation of salt and alcohol begun by Empress Elizabeth in 1759 to complete her addition to the Winter Palace. Like Sweden, Russia concluded a separate peace with Prussia. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris among France, Spain and Great Britain and the Treaty of Hubertusburg among Saxony, Austria and Prussia, in 1763. It was characterized in Europe by sieges and arson of towns as well as open battles with extremely heavy losses. The war was successful for Great Britain, which gained the bulk of New France in North America, Spanish Florida, some individual Caribbean islands in the West Indies, the colony of Senegal on the West African coast, and superiority over the French trading outposts on the Indian subcontinent. The native American tribes were excluded from the settlement; as allies of France, it is unlikely that being a party to the treaty would have been beneficial to them. A subsequent conflict, known as Pontiac's War, was also unsuccessful in returning them to their pre-war status. In Europe the war began disastrously for Prussia, but a combination of good luck and successful strategy saw King Frederick the Great manage to retrieve the Prussian position and achieve the ''status quo ante bellum'', and saw Prussia ascend as a new European great power. The involvement of Portugal, Spain and Sweden did not return them to their former status as great powers. While France was deprived of many of its colonies and saddled with heavy war debt, Spain lost Florida but gained French Louisiana and regained control of its colonies, e.g., Cuba and the Philippines, which had been captured by the British during the war. Witnessing the unprecedented rise of Britain, and being reduced to second-rate powers, the two Bourbon Powers were ready for revenge. The Seven Years' War is retrospectively regarded as one of the first true world wars, having taken place almost 160 years before what is commonly known as World War I. ==Nomenclature== The conflict in India is termed the Third Carnatic War, while the fighting between Prussia and Austria is called the Third Silesian War.〔Füssel (2010), p. 7.〕 The English-speaking British colonies in North America (present-day United States and Canada, where fighting actually began almost two years before that in Europe) fought what is known as the French and Indian War. Swedish historiography uses the name ''Pommerska kriget'' (Pomeranian War), as Swedish involvement was limited to Pomerania in northern central Germany.〔 The war has been described as the first "world war", although this label was also given to various earlier conflicts like the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession, and to later conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars, termed the Second Hundred Years' War in order to describe the almost continuous level of world-wide conflict during the entire 18th century, different from the more famous and compact struggle of the 14th century.〔Tombs, Robert and Isabelle. ''That Sweet Enemy: The French and the British from the Sun King to the Present''. London: William Heinemann, 2006.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Seven Years' War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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