The Seven Years War developed lots
of different ally changes between all of the European countries. It lasted for
a while, but in the end the war didn’t really solve or accomplish anything
major. At first it was between the British Empire and the French Empire. Later
on in the war lots of different countries were being sucked into it though.
There were previous battles that arose tension between the French and British
and it sooner or later evolved into this huge war that even brought other parts
of the world involved.
There was a really small country
called Saxony and they got overrun by Prussia which was a larger country. And lots
of other countries decided to go up against Prussia with their own armies.
Unfortunately, Saxony never regenerated to be independent from Prussia. But,
Prussia was a little defeated by the other countries that went up against them.
Not so much defeated that they never recovered themselves, but they were set
back.
It then came around 1760 when other
countries were starting to get pulled into the war. Those countries were
Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Spain and Portugal fought, but nothing really got
accomplished. Sweden fought against Russia until they decided to make peace in
1762, so nothing got accomplished there either. It always seems like whenever there
are large wars like this, they sometimes have relevant reasons, and sometimes
not. But, whatever reasoning they have, it never gets completely accomplished.
And there are times when they make peace like Russia and Sweden and they went through
all that fighting which was wasting time to just come to the conclusion that
the fighting wasn’t needed.
Even though the war started with Britain
and France, Britain wasn’t actually a big part in the whole thing. But that all
changed in 1759. That was the year that Britain turned themselves around. It
was called the Annus Mirabilis (which
meant “the year of miracles”). Britain became extremely successful throughout
the rest of the war. They conquered lots of areas like Florida, New France,
India, and more. Because of this sudden success, Britain became the strongest
in the world.
Throughout the Seven Years War,
lots of alliances were broken and new ones were made, and many countries
switched lots of sides. But again, even when all of this was happening, nothing
was being accomplished even when countries thought it was the right decision to
be on the side that they changed to.
Luckily, there was a treaty that
was made that ended the war. It was called the Treaty of Paris. It began 1763.
But there was a catch. This treaty instituted status quo ante bellum. That meant that all of the territories that
were lost or gained were erased. Everything would go back to the way it was
before the war. So that made the war an even bigger waste. But it was an
influence on future wars and even the creation of the United States. Most of
the war was about countries gaining certain lands and who was the most powerful
in the world. It turned out, that Britain was the country that was the most
successful. France was the country that lost a lot in the war and didn’t really
accomplish anything. Even though those countries were successful or not they still
were given a clean slate because of the treaty that was made. That was a plus
for the countries who lost a lot in the war but then again, it was a big loss
for the countries who were successful in it.
