Seven Years' War
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The seven years war was fought on four continents between 1756 and 1763, and it is often called the first world war. In Europe Frederick the Great of Prussia faced Austria, Russia and France in a struggle for Silesia and for the balance of power; his victory at Rossbach in 1757 and his survival of two winters against three armies made Prussia a great power. Elsewhere the war decided empires: British forces under Wolfe took Quebec in 1759, and the treaty of Paris in 1763 gave Britain Canada, all French India and the eastern half of North America east of the Mississippi, while Spain ceded Florida. France's ally Spain entered the war late and lost its own American ambitions. The war's cost nearly broke Britain, and the attempt to tax the American colonies to pay for it led directly to the stamp act of 1765 and the revolution of 1776. In India the battle of Plassey in 1757 had already made the East India Company a territorial power. Prussia kept Silesia but lost half its men, and Russia's rise alarmed every court in Europe. The war also gave Britain the slogan that the sun would never set on its possessions.