50. Preparing for next time

In the uneasy peace between the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, Britain set about securing its growing imperial power. Central to it was its position in North America, as many visionaries saw, not least the then committed supporter of the Empire, Benjamin Franklin, in Pennsylvania. But that meant dealing with the French stranglehold around the British Colonies in what is now the United States. Three attempts, first manned and led by Americans (George Washington's first and defeated command), and then directed by Brits (to no better success), all failed spectacularly, demonstrating nothing so much as the incompetence of the British military whether colonial or from the mother country. On the other hand, British force did well in another appalling and shameful act of ethnic cleansing, very much in the spirit of the Duke of Cumberland's actions towards the Scottish Highlanders, up in Nova Scotia, present-day Canada. Illustration: At one time a visionary for the British Empire: Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Wilson, in 1759. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License