Some historians have called the Seven Years’ War the first true world war, and they make a good point. In Europe, an alliance of Great Britain, the German state of Hanover (the ruling house of Britain was from Hanover), and Prussia fought a series of battles against an alliance of France, Austria, and Russia, with the occasional involvement of some other European powers such as Sweden and Spain. The war was also fought in many other parts of the world, including in India, West Africa, and the Caribbean, where both the French and the British had colonies. In addition to the fighting on land, battles were fought between ships on the high seas, and these naval battles were generally won by the British, who boasted the 18th century’s best navy. Ultimately, this globally coordinated war involved five continents and at least 29 states and tribal confederacies, with a casualty toll in the millions and the maps forever altered.

The war’s origins stemmed from the rivalry between two sets of European powers that found expression in the War of the Austrian Succession of 1740-1748. In 1740, Charles VI was emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, a dysfunctional aggregation of practically independent states corresponding roughly to what is now Germany. He was of the House of Habsburg, as were preceding emperors, but he had no sons, and the Salic Law then in effect in Germany forbade female succession. Charles did not want to see the Habsburg family lands, which were vast, broken up. These lands included Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, Hungary, the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), Milan, Mantua, Parma, and Tuscany, making the Habsburgs one of the richest and most powerful families in Europe.

By an edict known as the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles abolished the Salic Law in Habsburg lands, allowing his daughter, Maria Theresa, to succeed him. However, the emperor was elected by the nine leading princes of Germany, and he could not secure that title for her (Maria Theresa’s husband, Francis of Lorraine, was elected emperor in 1745). In a frenzy of diplomatic activity, he obtained guarantees from the major powers—Britain, France, Russia, and Spain—that they would recognize Maria Theresa and not seek to divide the Habsburg territories between them when he died. 

As part of the Seven Years’ War, which was being fought between the British and French across the world, the French and Indian War was the last in a long series of colonial conflicts between the French and British and also changed the map in America. At the end of the war, disputed North American borders were finally settled, and both empires were left reeling from the costs of war. The war would cement British power in North America, end French colonial ambition for decades, and bring about a chain reaction that led to the formation of the United States about 20 years later.