The Seven Years' War

Europe from 1748-1766

Map of European colonies in North America, c. 1750. Disputes over territorial claims persisted after the end of King George's War in 1748.

Almost all of the material in this post is sourced from Wikipedia, with much of it copied or heavily paraphrased, but significantly culled and rearranged, except the section on casualties which draws its data but not most of its language from Wikipedia.

When Was The Seven Years' War?

The Seven Years War lasted from May 17, 1756 – February 15, 1763 (6 years, 8 months, 4 weeks and 1 day), parts of which were called the French and Indian War in North America, and the Third Carnatic War in India.

What Was The End Result Of The Seven Years War?

* The status quo remained in place in Europe and West Africa (where Britain had attempted to oust France from its colonies in Gorée, Senegal, and Gambia), but with the perceived power of France and the Austrian Hapsburgs diminished, and that of England and Prussia enhanced.

* Diplomatic resolutions changed control of many colonies, some of which had little or no involvement in the conflict itself (e.g. the Philippines).

* Mughal Empire cedes Bengal to Great Britain.

* France and Spain return conquered colonial territory to Great Britain and Portugal.

* France cedes its North American possessions east of the Mississippi River, Canada, the islands of St. Vincent, Tobago, Dominica, and Grenada, and the Northern Circars in India to Great Britain.

* France cedes Louisiana and its North American territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain.

* Spain cedes Florida and Manila to Great Britain.

Where Did The Fighting Take Place?

Mostly in Central Europe, in North America (mostly in the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada), the Caribbean, and in India. There were comparatively minor battles at sea and near coastal areas in the Baltics, Britain, France, Portugal, and French West Africa.

The large-scale conflict that drew in most of the European powers centered on Austria's desire to recover Silesia, which it had lost in 1747, from the Prussians, in which it ultimately failed. In the European theater, seeing the opportunity to curtail Britain's and Prussia's ever-growing power, France and Austria put aside their ancient rivalry to form a coalition of their own. Faced with this sudden turn of events, Britain aligned herself with Prussia; this alliance drew in not only the British king's territories in personal union, including Hanover, and also those of his relatives in the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel.

In India, the Mughal Empire, with the encouragement of the French, tried to crush a British attempt to conquer Bengal. 

In the Americas, the same coalitions prevailed. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers of whom 10,000 were mobilized in a militia, compared with 2 million in the British colonies which fielded 42,000 soldiers. Both sides added a First Nation partner. Abenaki, an Algonquin speaking tribe, joined with the French. The Abenaki, who were also known as "People of the Dawn", lived in, or had been displaced by, English settlers in the Atlantic colonies. The Iroquois, or Five Nations, joined with the British. The Iroquois, who lived predominantly in lands controlled by the French, wrought havoc on the European trade routes and settlements. The outnumbered French particularly depended on the natives.

In the West Indies, the British and Spanish fought for control of key points in the Caribbean trade routes, particularly the Windward Passage and Havana.

What Caused The Seven Years' War?

In Europe, the conflict arose from issues left unresolved by the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), over territorial disputes between Prussia and Austria, which wanted to regain Silesia after it was captured by Prussia in the previous war, and Prussia seeking greater dominance. 

Long-standing colonial rivalries pitting Britain against France and Spain in North America and the Caribbean islands were fought on a grand scale with consequential results. 

Austria ended centuries of conflict by allying with France, along with Saxony, Sweden and Russia. Spain aligned formally with France in 1762. Spain unsuccessfully attempted to invade Britain's ally Portugal, attacking with their forces facing British troops in Iberia. Smaller German states either joined the Seven Years' War or supplied mercenaries to the parties involved in the conflict.

Anglo-French conflict over their colonies in North America had begun in 1754 in what became known in the United States as the French and Indian War, a nine-year war that ended France's presence as a land power. Spain entered the war in 1761, joining France in the Third Family Compact between the two Bourbon monarchies. The alliance with France was a disaster for Spain, with the loss to Britain of two major ports, Havana in the Caribbean and Manila in the Philippines, returned in the 1763 Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain. 

What Was The Scale Of The Military Conflict?

Several million soldiers and sailors worldwide served in the conflict at some point, although the peak number of combatants at any given point in time was probably under one million.

There were twenty-six major land battles in Europe. The biggest was the Battle of Villinghausen from July 15-16, 1761 in what is now West Germany, in which 60,000 Anglo-Prussian forces (1,600 died) faced 100,000 French-Austrian forces (5,000 died), and the British forces ultimately prevailed. The most deadly battle in the war was the Battle of Kunersdorf in present day Poland on August 12, 1759 in which 18,503 of 49,000 Anglo-Prussian forces died and 15,741 of 98,000 Franco-Austrian troops died leading to a Russo-Austrian victory.

There were eleven major land battles in what would become the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada, with about 13,000 British and Native American casualties and about 18,500 French, Spanish and Native American casualties. The Siege of Fort William Henry near the New York-Quebec border was the most deadly killing 10,716 troops combined on August 3-9, 1757 and resulting in a French victory at a heavy cost in lives. 

There were one major land battle in the Caribbean, the Siege of Havanna from June 6 to August 13, 1762, in addition to some minor ones that involved 31,000 British forces on 31 ships and 160 transports, and 11,670 Spanish forces with 14 ships and 100 merchant ships. On the British side there were 5,366 killed, wounded, captured, missing, sick, or died of disease, and three ships lost. All of the Spanish forces were killed, wounded, captured, missing, sick, or died of disease and all of the Spanish ships were captured.

In India, there were seven major land battles. The British lost the first battle of Calcutta while inflicting disproportionate casualties on the Mughals. The British won to more battles against the Mughals and inflicted disproportionate casualties, despite being vastly outnumbered. The British then won four more battles against French-sepoy forces, against whom they were more equally matched.

How Many Casualties Were There?

About 764,000 people were killed in the Seven Years' War on all sides combined, worldwide, and perhaps another 136,000 were disabled, for about 900,000 serious casualties combined, worldwide.

For comparison purposes, the number of deaths on both sides of the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) were about 500,000 with another 350,000 disabled.

About 16,000 of the deaths were in India, about 40,000 were in North America and Caribbean, and the remaining 708,000 were in Europe, with a supermajority of those in Central Europe. 

The European powers involved had a combined population of about 106 million at the time. 

There were about 2.5 million people (British, Spanish, French and Native American) in the area involved in conflict in North America and the Caribbean.

The Moghal Empire in India had a population of about 158 million people at the time.

The area of West Africa involved in the conflict probably had several hundred thousand to a million people at the time.

Casualties Among Europeans and European Colonists

There were 180,000 Prussian soldiers and 33,000 Prussian civilians killed. 

The British had 1,512 battle deaths and 60,000 who died or were discharged as unfit for service (perhaps 50,000 dead and 10,000 disabled), for a combined 20% of soldiers who served in the war.

There were 32,622 Austrians killed in battle, 93,404 Austrians who died of wounds or diseases, and 17,388 Austrians disabled. 

There were 200,000 French soldiers killed, about 20% of French soldiers who served in the war.

There were 28,000 Swedish soldiers killed. 

There were 25,000 killed in other parts of the Holy Roman Empire. 

There were 138,000 Russians and 34,000 Spanish troops were killed, disabled, missing, or captures (based upon the proportions in other forces, perhaps half of them were killed).

Some Portuguese troops were killed in fighting in Iberia in a small number of battles that did not kill a great number of people.

Native American Deaths

Something on the order of 10,000 Native Americans were killed in the North American part of the war (although this estimate is not very precise). The number of Native Americans in British North America at the time was on the order of 52,000 to 100,000, with a probably similar or smaller number of French North America.

The French and Indian War probably killed between 5%-15% of the total Native American population in the region of the conflict, with the participating tribal allies hit harder.

Deaths In India

About 9,000 Mughal troops were killed in India. About one in six of them who fought in the two battles in Calcutta died, and about 1% of those who fought in the Battle of Plassey on June 23, 1757 died.