Who won the Seven Years’ War?
Data Scavenger Hunt
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, your big brain, and the links below:
The Seven Years’ War lasted 9! Officially, the conflict lasted just under seven years: from Britain declaring war on France on 17 May 1756, to the Treaty of Paris on 10 February 1763. But hostilities had begun two years earlier in North America, with the British and French engaging in skirmishes and ambushes along the border of their territories - this was know in the U.S. as the French and Indian War. How long was the Seven Years’ War and why can’t thnigs just be simple?
Before 1754 and the start of the Seven Years’ War. How many European Countries controlled territory in the Americas?
Before 1754 what European country controlled the most territory in the Americas?
In Europe, the Seven Years’ (or Nine!) War was more or less pointless, with no side gaining any land at its conclusion. But the territorial repercussions were much more serious in North America. In the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which concluded the war, France not only lost New France to Britain — including all of the future US between the Mississippi and the 13 colonies, as well as all of French Canada — but also ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. Napoleon would seize back Louisiana and sell it to the US in 1803, but New France was lost forever. In 1763, how much North American land remained unclaimed by European territories?
This land might have been unclaimed by Europeans but it wasn’t uninhabited. Why do you think this land was unclaimed by Europeans?
How do you think the language patterns in the Americas today (see map below*) were impacted by the maps above?
A “territory” is a land area that has not yet been divided into states. No new territories were added to the United States for twenty years after the Treaty of Paris. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte surprised the Americans by offering to sell New Orleans and the whole Louisiana Territory for $15 million dollars. The Louisiana Purchase Doubled the size of the United States but the U.S. had to take Kansas. Ugh. Which part of the United States would you be most happy to give back to its original owners?
Since the United States Constitution's ratification in 1789, the country has grown from 864,746 square miles to 3,531,905 through territorial acquisitions. Identify the foreign countries that have lost or sold parts of their land to the United States.
The Proclamation Line of 1763 was a British-produced boundary marked in the Appalachian Mountains at the Eastern Continental Divide. Decreed on October 7, 1763, the Proclamation Line prohibited Anglo-American colonists from settling on lands acquired from the French following the French and Indian War. This measure advanced British governmental efforts to discourage westward expansion in the decade before the American Revolution, an objective motivated by a number of sociopolitical and economic factors. Officials in London feared that an increased Anglo-American presence in the western territory would encourage Native American violence that, when paired with resistance from French settlers in the region, would incite another expensive conflict for the empire. Did the Proclamation Line of 1763 work?
Who won the Seven Years’ War?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Consider the unexpected consequences of wars. People speak French in Acadian Louisiana, in Quebec, Canada, and speak Spanish in much of the Southwest. Use this map of languages spoken in the United States to consider the linguistic impact of the Seven (or Nine) Years’ War. Share your conclusions with your classmates.
Get Creative
Think about the language you speak and how important that is in your life. Think about how very many factors went in to the language you speak and how very easily you could have been raised speaking a different language. Imagine you grew up with a different mother tongue (language). How would that have impacted your entire culture and ways of thinking? Write a short meditation (thoughtful paragraph) about how your native language impacts all of your life.