The significance of the contest, however, lay in its wide extension into India and America. Indeed, colonial war between England and Spain had already begun before Frederick appeared on the stage, and France must soon have joined Spain in any event. In the New Worlds, too, the peace restored the former boundaries; but the war marks a clear consciousness in Eng land and France that the two were rivals for vast realms outside Europe. The family in terests of monarchs a% a cause for war were giving place to the commercial interests of Eng lish and Dutch merchants as opposed to those of French and Spanish merchants, while back of these selfish motives lay the mighty question, big with consequence to the world, whether French or English political ideas should hold the New World.
In 1756, Austria fortified herself by alliance with Russia, Sweden and even her old enemy France, and prepared to destroy Prussia. Fred erick's supreme military genius saved his coun try for the moment, and the next year England came to his aid. During the brief interval be tween the European wars, England and France had practically remained at war in America; and now that France had joined Austria, Eng land was constrained to support Prussia. In all the period from 1689 to 1815, no matter what the origin of the wars, England and France soon became the chief factors; and though they were at one time or another on every side of every question, they were never on the same side at the same time.
This Seven Years' War (1756-63), or Great French War, as it is commonly known in America, was literally a world-wide struggle. Red men fought by the Great Lakes of North America, and black men fought in Senegal, while Englishmen and Frenchmen grappled in India as well as in Germany, and their fleets engaged on every sea. The showy battles took place in Germany, and on the whole the Euro pean conflict determined the wider results. Pitt, with vision fixed upon a coming British em pire, declared that in Germany he would con quer America from France. This he did. England furnished the funds, and her navy swept the seas. Frederick, supported by Brit ish subsidies, furnished the generalship and most of the troops for the German battlefields. The striking figures in the struggle are (1) Pitt, the English imperialist and the directing genius of the war; (2) Frederick, the mili tary genius, who won Pitt's victories in Europe; (3) Wolfe, who won French America from the great Moatcalm, and (4) Clive, the East India Company's clerk, who laid the basis for England's supremacy in India.
Changes in the World-Map; the American Revolution.— The Treaty of Paris (1763) left Europe without change; but in India France lost all except a few unfortified trading posts, while in America, England received Florida from Spain, and Canada and the eastern half of the Mississippi Valley from France. France ceded to Spain the •western half of the Mis sissippi Valley, in compensation for the losses Spain had incurred as her ally; and, except for her West India Islands, she ceased to be an American power. Spain still held South ica and half of North America; but her huge bulk was decaying day by day. Holland, too, with widespread empire, was plainly in decline. England, having dispossessed France in both Asia and America, stood forth as the leading world-power.
The American Revolution, a few years later, did not lessen this pre-eminence ; but it had other results of supreme significance. The war came because the American colonies had really be come a nation, and because the English govern ment unwisely insisted upon managing Amer ican affairs after the Americans were quite able to take care of themselves. English interfer ence in economic matters had long been irk some, and the danger of interference in eccle siastical matters was feared. England had just relieved the colonies from fear of French con quest. External bonds were gone, and inter nal ties were dissolving. Then George III and his ministers supplied the necessary jar to ef fect separation by trying to raise revenue in America by Acts of Parliament. Astute pa triots rallied the majority of the Americans by an old English shibboleth; and after a bitter eight-years' conflict (1775-83), the 13 Eng lish colonies became the first free American nation.
The Revolution the English race and doubled its influence. It paved the way for a more enlightened economic science, since, con trary to all expectations, the trade of free America from the first proved more valuable to England than that of colonial America had been. It reacted upon England, so that, when the Freat wars were over, both that country and its remaining colonies made new advances in political liberty. It set up the standard of independence for the states of Spanish Amer ica in both continents. But its supreme im portance lay in the birth into the family of nations of the United States itself, though the full significance of the new nation hardly be gan to impress Europe for more than two. gen erations.