Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM

Background

The Seven Years War was possibly the first epochical war since the third Punic war. It was very much the first real world war and its effects shook the whole world, creating a supreme empire and sowing the seeds of its destruction at the same time. The effects of the war included British dominance in India and America, Britain’s policy of navel supremacy and the balance of power on the continent, the French and American revolutions and the foundations of most of the world’s democratises.

However, British triumph was defeated. Not by the French, Spanish or Russians, but by the British Monarch and his cronies of that time; George III, the mad king, who was still on the throne during the American Revolution. When he became king, he and the Lord Bute, his chief crony, moved to remove Pitt from power.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, known as 'the Great Commoner', dominated the political scene as a wartime leader during the Seven Years' War. His first office was as paymaster-general,1746, where he made a name for himself by his honesty and failure to take financial advantage of the office. Discouraged by his lack of progress within government, he turned to criticizing the Duke of Newcastle, and his government's war policy, resulting in his dismissal in 1755. After Newcastle resigned in 1756, Pitt formed a government with George Grenville and the Duke of Devonshire. Pitt and Grenville argued over the administration of the war and in April, 1757, King George II dismissed Pitt. After several months with effectively no government, Pitt was recalled to government at the outbreak of the Seven Years' War to form a coalition government with Newcastle. Pitt served very effectively as a wartime prime minister with Newcastle attending to domestic affairs. He sent a strengthened British fleet to blockade French ports and provided supplies to Frederick the Great of Prussia. His policies resulted in victory over the French in India and Canada and on the seas. He sought to continue the war until France was completely defeated, and broaden the war by declaring against Spain. He met with opposition by other ministers and George III.

Ironically, the people who had forced Pitt from office over the issue of war with Spain discovered that they were forced to fight that war themselves. However, the Spanish were largely useless and Britain was soon ascendant again. Having secured triumph, the British held a peace conference and gave back some of the territories that they had seized to France and Spain. Pitt opposed this, but could do little. Without French naval power broken, he warned, they could still do great mischief to the empire, a prophecy that must rank with Marshall Joffe’s in 1919, and was proved true by the battle of Yorktown, seventeen years later.

Argument:

If Pitt had been in power longer, the war would have been so much in Britain’s favour that the French and Spanish would have been decisively defeated and changed the course of history completely.

Point of Divergence:

The death of King George II was the turning point in Pitt’s fortunes. There are really two possible PODs here, the king lives longer and his son, Prince Fredrick surviving longer. (George III was his grandson.) The longer survival of Fredrick would almost certainly have ‘butterfly’ effects that would change the British political scene completely anyway, so I’m a bit uncomfortable with it, but he did have the right, Britain centred (rather than Hanover centred), attitudes for global empire and therefore was better than his father, so we’ll go with that POD. I’m assuming that he would have spent his extra time learning how to be an emperor at Pitt’s side while still a prince, and therefore would be reasonably fit to rule.

The addition of Spain to the war had been anticipated with fear by everyone aside from Pitt, the French and some (not all) of the Spanish. Pitt wanted an immediate declaration of war and an attack on the Spanish treasure fleet returning from Mexico, suspecting – rightly – that Spain was merely waiting for that fleet to arrive before declaring war. With the king’s intervention, Pitt ordered the navy to attack the fleet. The Spanish commander fought hard, but the British carried the day and captured most of the fleet, the Spanish court declared war. Ironically, the battle of the Azores, as it came to be called (despite the Azores being some hundreds or so miles from the battle) would prove to be the high-water mark of Spain in the navel battles, the rest would be one-sided British victories.

Fuming over British perfidy, the Spanish declared war and marched into Portugal. The Portuguese fought bravely, assisted by the Spanish souilurs being reluctant to fight and a British exhibition led by one Byournge. The Spanish requested help from the French and attempted to cut the sea lines leading to Gibraltar and Portugal. The battle was a complete disaster, and almost all of the remaining Spanish fleet was captured or destroyed.

British forces, operating from America, attacked and captured Cuba and the other islands in the Caribbean. Britain captured Martinique from France followed by Havana on August 05, 1762 and Manila on October 3, 1762. (Note: several days earlier than in OTL) Naval forces struck at the Philippines and were repulsed the first time, although a later exhibition succeeded in capturing them. Based on Cuba, a blockade of Spanish Mexico and Peru was begun, cutting them off from Spain. A bold British businessman encouraged Pitt to seize Bunino Areas (Argentina), which led to Britain claiming both the Falklands beyond any doubt and holding a large part of Argentina under their direct control. Revolts began to appear in parts of Spanish America.

Meanwhile, events in Europe were proceeding along a grim pattern. In Prussia, the French armies (D'Estrees and Soubise) from Cassel to Ferdinand's line after the Diemal River. Ferdinand crossed the river and attacked and the larger French army with his army at Wilhelmsthal on June 24th, stymieing any French offensive plans and pushing them back to Kassel. A French army advanced from the Rhine to link up with the main French army, whose communications with Frankfurt were now nearly cut. A month later, Ferdinand attacked the French army at Lutterberg to draw their attention north, but Spanish troops, managed to delay him enough to allow the French to meet him. His attempt to advance from the south and cut their communications frustrated, Ferdinand withdrew, his retreat covered by the weather. The war bogged down along a defensible rivers. However, France had started to realize that Britain would destroy her overseas and, desperate for victory, had sent yet more men in to Germany and used Spanish troops to assist. Ferdinand ran rings round one of the Spanish coups, but the French, who were learning, managed to savage Ferdinand’s army, forcing parts of it to surrender, and making Fredrick the Great consider taking poison, as the news from the east was not good.

Luckily for Fredrick, he was just about to take it when his messenger burst in and informed him that the Queen of Russia, a noted Fredrick-hater, had just died. The new Tsar, Peter III, who was an admirer of Fredrick, offered the use of a Russian army, which saved Fredrick from a deadly defeat in Silesia. However, the new tsar was deposed within the week, and the next one withdrew from the conflict entirely. While this is better news, Prussia is running out of men. Fredrick goes on to the defensive as winter approaches, grimly aware that next year might not bring good tidings from Prussia.

Meanwhile, or somewhere about then, the north American continent had become something of a sideshow. This suited Jeffery Amherst, the British commanding officer, just fine.

Jeffery Amherst was appointed to America in 1758. He was appointed ‘major-general’ and granted command of all British and Anglo-American forces on the continent, and instructed to ‘interrupt into Canada and seize it for the King. Technically, James Abercromby was the commanding officer, but he soon disgraced himself and today we prefer to remember Amherst alone. Amherst wanted a peaceful few years, but events were not on his side, while he was arguing with the colonial legislates, Chief Pontiac struck.

During the Seven Years War and afterwards, the British commanders, especially Sir Jeffery Amherst, regarded the Native American population sometimes as children, sometimes as savages, sometimes as opportunists and most often some combination of the three, which would always rebound to the Indians’ discredit.

However, the Indians had their own ways and modes of behaviour and regarded themselves as free agents. When the French were winning, they stayed with the French, when the British were winning, they stayed with the British. Buying their services required the commanders to give them gifts, which were regarded by OTL Amherst as an intolerable act of greed on the part of the Indians. Amherst acted to restrict this practice and the selling of guns, gunpowder and other essentials to the Indians. This provoked resentment and rebellion, of which the most famous is Pontiac’s rebellion.

The Indian’s use of French symbols was taken as a sign that the French had not given in yet despite crushing losses. This also had the effect of making British officers less inclined to sympathise with the Quebecois people and their faith. It began all to common for a British or American to accuse a Quebec rival of being a spy to get rid of the unlucky gentleman. This provoked discontent and an uprising.

The great forces that had taken Montreal had been dispersed along America or gathered in Florida for an invasion of Louisiana. The Indian attack caused severe losses to the British/America forces and killed thousands of innocent civilians. Amherst ordered counter-attacks, which of necessary were limited, and pursued a policy of deliberately inflecting the Indians with Smallpox. The war raged back and forth until 1765, when British reinforcements arrived from Cuba and Amherst (replaced by Gage in late 1764) waged a furious campaign. Serving under him was one George Washington, who became duly famous in the battles, and forged a link with the British officers that would endure years and the troubles later.

The French were blamed for starting the war, and the British forces invaded Louisiana in 1765. This was mostly an American operation, led by Washington, as British troops were in short supply, fighting in Canada to suppress the Quebecois revolutionaries. Louisiana fell in early 1766 and became part of the British Empire.

The Spanish Empire was in a state of collapse. The British blockade had allowed revolutions to appear throughout Spanish America and it was becoming clear that whatever the British did not take, would be lost though internal upheaval. The Spanish desperately tried to slip forces though the blockade, but they were only once successful. The Spanish people reacted with rebellions throughout Spain itself, which were brutally put down. There is a lot of surpasses rage in a country like Spain, however, and the great nobles knew it. They attempted to forge a peace, but Pitt would have none of it unless his exacting terms were met.

Desperate to crush one enemy, at least, the French attempted to raise yet another army and attack Prussia. Again, they raised the squeeze of the French peasants. This time, however, they had had enough, and they protested. The protest turned violent, and the peasants revolted. The revolt soon spread to every part of France. Repression provoked more violence and the nobles who were not smart enough to leave were killed by the mob. The French army revolted and most of it dispersed. The revolts spread to Spain and the Spanish society is shattered as old hatreds are repaid – with interest.

The ten years war is commonly estimated to have ended in 1768. However, as the French King never signed a peace treaty with Britain, that’s debatable. What was clear was that nether France or Spain would pose a threat for the foreseeable future. The French navy was destroyed or captured, the French overseas territories were taken, the Spanish territories in revolution or captured, and the two main enernies in civil war. Ironically, Britain found herself playing host to exiled French nobles who had fled their pasts and those eager for revenge.

Prussia was servery weakened before the French army collapsed. Fredrick has far less men than in OTL. He can, however, recover much of his territory from France and Austria left the war when France collapsed. Fredrick would love to go there and exact revenge, but that’s something for the future.

The Portuguese empire has enjoyed a most perculer occurrence, when the French and Spanish attacked, the Portuguese court fled to Brazil. They had then set up shop there and had effectively moved their empire there instead. They started to consider the possibility of invasions of the old Spanish territory, while waiting for the dust to settle in Portugal.

The British at war’s end are victorious completely. They hold most of the North American continent, India, the Caribbean islands, a large part of Argentina, the Philippines and Hanover.

END OF PART ONE

References:

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War (very good)

Harvey, Robert. A few bloody noses

Pocock, Tom. Battle for Empire (British centred)

Pitt’s Empire

Background