Seven Years' War: Washington's Jumonville Ambush to Wolfe at Quebec

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In the spring of 1754 a 22-year-old Virginia militia officer, George Washington, ordered his men to fire on a small French patrol at Jumonville Glen in Pennsylvania. Britain and France both claimed the Ohio River Valley, and France had built forts such as Fort Duquesne, at the site of modern Pittsburgh, to block British settlers. The French retaliated and forced Washington to surrender at Fort Necessity, and the Royal Navy began seizing French ships before any declaration of war. France threatened Hanover, held by George II, and the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 followed: Britain allied with Prussia, and France joined its old rival Austria, whose Empress Maria Theresa wanted back the province of Silesia that Frederick the Great had taken.

William Pitt the Elder paid Prussia to keep French and Austrian armies tied down in Europe while the navy blockaded French ports and the army picked off France's overseas empire. Britain called 1759 its year of miracles. Frederick, nearly destroyed, survived because Russia could not feed its army. The 1763 Treaty of Paris removed France from North America, but it left Britain isolated, and the debts of the war fed both the American and French Revolutions.

• James Wolfe led about 5,000 men up a narrow path to the Plains of Abraham at night, and both Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm were mortally wounded.
• Wolfe's troops double-loaded their muskets and held fire until the French were about 40 paces away.
• Robert Clive's 1757 victory at Plassey secured Britain's foothold in India, and Britain also seized Senegal, Gorée and Guadeloupe.
• Frederick lost half his army at Kunersdorf in 1759 and wrote a letter handing over command while considering suicide.
• Russia's later logistical reforms, prompted by its failure to follow up Kunersdorf, helped it march on Paris against Napoleon in 1814.