What happened because of the Seven Years War?

A few weeks ago I told you all about the Seven Years War, and why it happened.  It made for a fascinating history lesson, but as I mentioned in that post, the Seven Years War changed how the world map looked.  The Treaty redrew country lines on the map, transferred over whole colonies to different countries, and ultimately led to many revolts, the results of the Seven Years War are still felt over 200 years later.

Supplies for our Seven Years War lesson

world maps, vis-a-vis markers, Mystery of History 4

 

Results of the Seven Years War

The Seven Years War ended with the Treaty of Paris.

FUN FACT.  If you’re ever not sure what the name of the treaty ending the war is, guess the Treaty of Paris or the Treaty of Versailles.  Odds are you are right.

The Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War.  Technically, it ended the Seven Years War for France, Spain, Great Britain, and Portugal.  Prussia, Saxony, and Austria had their own treaty with the Treaty of Hubertusburg.

The countries involved put all the areas involved on cards, and then dealt them all out to new people.

France dealt the colony of Louisiana to Spain.  They really didn’t want that land to go to Britain, so they gave it to Spain.  Spain only kept it for a few years, and you can see evidence of this in the architecture in New Orleans.

Britain meanwhile made out like a bandit.  They got all the rest of the French colonies in North America, which means Canada and the Ohio River Valley.  France decided they would rather give up the fur trade in Canada than the sugar plantations in the Caribbean.

This right here, that’s the money colonies.  France was keeping itself afloat off the income coming from the Caribbean, and that is going to be a whole big deal thing in about 50 or 60 years when the Haitian Revolution comes along, but that’s a story for another day.

Spain, being on the losing side of the Seven Years War, lost its North American colonies to Britain.  This worked out really well for Britain because it now owned all of the land East of the Mississippi on the North American continent.  They were thinking this provided a buffer between the Natives and their colonists, and another buffer between the Spanish colonies on the Mississippi River.  However, the American colonists thought they desperately needed the land, because it was too crowded.

You know, those less than million people were way too crowded on the Eastern seaboard.

Over in Asia, it pretty much returned to the way it was before the war.  Britain gave back the forts they won, and France left Britain alone.

It’s going to stay relatively quiet for another few years.  We’re not really going to talk about India again for a few years.

And finally, we get to the people who started this whole big mess, Prussia, and Austria.

Austria was on the wrong side at the end and lost the area of Silesia.  Poor Maria Theresa lost her land and all that pretty fabric.

 

Now, these are the official end results of the Seven Years War.  There are a whole slew of unintended consequences to the Seven Years War.  But, that is a story for another day.

If you’re curious to read more modern history events, check out my Modern history page, or my Mystery of History 4 board.

More History lessons

• Thirty Years War lesson
• Hindenburg resources
• Battle of the Alamo lesson
• War of the Roses lesson
• Sew a haversack, American Revolution lesson