The outbreak of the Seven Years War saw the formation of new alliances and led to the conduct of military operations in several theaters simultaneously. The campaign of 1757 saw large-scale maneuvers, with their necessary operational corollaries of supply and logistics, as France put an army of 100,000 men into the field. The conduct of the campaign also testifies to the difficulty of exercising command in the face of a court and a government for which short-term results took precedence over means. Notwithstanding such difficulties, the campaign of the French armies in Westphalia saw its climax play out around the village of Hastenbeck on 26 July 1757, where the forces of Maréchal d'Estrées gained a victory that came close to knocking Hanover out of the war. The story of the campaign can be told from the human perspective thanks to the large body of memoirs and letters from officers, both general and subordinate, of cavalry and infantry regiments. Having left their garrisons four months earlier, they had come to battle at the gates of Hanover after having traveled more than 600 kilometers through the Low Countries and into Germany.

The Seven Years? War was the world?s first global conflict, spanning five continents and the critical sea lanes that connected them. This book is the fullest account ever written of the French navy?s role in the hostilities. It is also the most complete survey of both phases of the war: the French and Indian War in North America (1754?60) and the Seven Years? War in Europe (1756?63), which are almost always treated independently. By considering both phases of the war from every angle, award-winning historian Jonathan R. Dull shows not only that the two conflicts are so interconnected that neither can be fully understood in isolation but also that traditional interpretations of the war are largely inaccurate. His work also reveals how the French navy, supposedly utterly crushed, could have figured so prominently in the War of American Independence only fifteen years later. ø A comprehensive work integrating diplomatic, naval, military, and political history, The French Navy and the Seven Years? War thoroughly explores the French perspective on the Seven Years? War. It also studies British diplomacy and war strategy as well as the roles played by the American colonies, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Portugal. As this history unfolds, it becomes clear that French policy was more consistent, logical, and successful than has previously been acknowledged, and that King Louis XV?s conduct of the war profoundly affected the outcome of America?s subsequent Revolutionary War.

The closest thing to total war before the First World War, the Seven Years' War was fought in North America, Europe, the Caribbean and India with major consequences for all parties involved. This fascinating book is the first to truly review the grand strategies of the combatants and examine the differing styles of warfare used in the many campaigns. These methods ranged from the large-scale battles and sieges of the European front to the ambush and skirmish tactics used in the forests of North America. Daniel Marston's engaging narrative is supported by personal diaries, memoirs, and official reports.

A People's Army documents the many distinctions between British regulars and Massachusetts provincial troops during the Seven Years' War. Originally published by UNC Press in 1984, the book was the first investigation of colonial military life to give equal attention to official records and to the diaries and other writings of the common soldier. The provincials' own accounts of their experiences in the campaign amplify statistical profiles that define the men, both as civilians and as soldiers. These writings reveal in intimate detail their misadventures, the drudgery of soldiering, the imminence of death, and the providential world view that helped reconcile them to their condition and to the war.

The Seven Years War was a global contest between the two superpowers of eighteenth century Europe, France and Britain. Winston Churchill called it “the first World War”. Neither side could afford to lose advantage in any part of the world, and the decisive battles of the war ranged from Fort Duquesne in what is now Pittsburgh to Minorca in the Mediterranean, from Bengal to Quèbec. By its end British power in North America and India had been consolidated and the foundations of Empire laid, yet at the time both sides saw it primarily as a struggle for security, power and influence within Europe. In this eagerly awaited study, Daniel Baugh, the world’s leading authority on eighteenth century maritime history looks at the war as it unfolded from the failure of Anglo-French negotiations over the Ohio territories in 1784 through the official declaration of war in 1756 to the treaty of Paris which formally ended hostilities between England and France in 1763. At each stage he examines the processes of decision-making on each side for what they can show us about the capabilities and efficiency of the two national governments and looks at what was involved not just in the military engagements themselves but in the complexities of sustaining campaigns so far from home. With its panoramic scope and use of telling detail this definitive account will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in military history or the history of eighteenth century Europe.

The French forces that fought during the American War of Independence (1775-1783) were, to a large extent, a product of the disasters of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). During that war the fleet had been swept off the oceans, and nearly all colonies had been lost. Sweeping reforms were demanded. From the end of 1762 a series of royal orders dictated by common sense and good planning were signed by the king, and a vast reorganisation was started, ensuring that the army that fought in the American War presented a very different, altogether more formidable threat to her foes.

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a time of great upheaval for medieval France. In 1328 the Capetian line came to an end. This was the trigger for the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) as successive English kings attempted to uphold their claim to the French throne. Catastrophic defeats at Crécy and Poitiers shook the French kingdom to its core. A period of respite followed under Bertrand du Guesclin, but an even more devastating assault was to follow, under the warrior-king par excellence Henry V, and the French disintegration continued until 1429. This book details how the French began a recovery, partly triggered by the young visionary Joan of Arc, that would end with them as the major European military power.

In this engrossing narrative of the great military conflagration of the mid-eighteenth century, Fred Anderson transports us into the maelstrom of international rivalries. With the Seven Years' War, Great Britain decisively eliminated French power north of the Caribbean — and in the process destroyed an American diplomatic system in which Native Americans had long played a central, balancing role — permanently changing the political and cultural landscape of North America. Anderson skillfully reveals the clash of inherited perceptions the war created when it gave thousands of American colonists their first experience of real Englishmen and introduced them to the British cultural and class system. We see colonists who assumed that they were partners in the empire encountering British officers who regarded them as subordinates and who treated them accordingly. This laid the groundwork in shared experience for a common view of the world, of the empire, and of the men who had once been their masters. Thus, Anderson shows, the war taught George Washington and other provincials profound emotional lessons, as well as giving them practical instruction in how to be soldiers. Depicting the subsequent British efforts to reform the empire and American resistance — the riots of the Stamp Act crisis and the nearly simultaneous pan-Indian insurrection called Pontiac's Rebellion — as postwar developments rather than as an anticipation of the national independence that no one knew lay ahead (or even desired), Anderson re-creates the perspectives through which contemporaries saw events unfold while they tried to preserve imperial relationships. Interweaving stories of kings and imperial officers with those of Indians, traders, and the diverse colonial peoples, Anderson brings alive a chapter of our history that was shaped as much by individual choices and actions as by social, economic, and political forces.

Drawn from many international sources, many not employed before in English-language publications, Armies of the Seven Years War is the finest reference work on this most complex of conflicts. It details the senior commanders, uniforms, weapons, equipment, artillery, strategy and tactics (military and naval) of the forces that fought - in effect - for world supremacy from 1756 to 1763. States involved included Austria, Bavaria, Britain, Brunswick, Hanover, Hessen-Darmstadt, Hessen-Kassel, France, the Palatinate, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Württemberg and the minor states of the Holy Roman Empire. The colonial struggle in North America is not neglected.Coverage of the uniforms and colours is in depth. The tactics of the 'horse and musket' era are examined, as are Frederick the Great's abilities as a war leader who led his armies against the rest of continental Europe. With over 280 illustrations and specially commissioned battle maps, Armies of the Seven Years War is an invaluable resource for the modeller and wargamer, as well as a clear analysis of an extraordinary period of international conflict for all those with an interest in the history of empire.William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Britain's war leader, stated that 'America was won in Germany.' How could Prussian successes on the continent of Europe have sounded the death knell for New France and Spanish ambitions in North America? Armies of the Seven Years War explains the connection and the outcomes of all the complex alliances that led to the 'first world war'.