Colonialism and The "Second Hundred
Years' War"
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The Big Picture:
Colonies had, by the 17th century, been incorporated into the
economies of Western European countries through the practice of
mercantilism. Mercantilism by then had come to mean the domination of
trade. Thus colonialism and the overseas trade became inextricably
bound up with issues of continental power and advantage that had been
characteristic of the dynastic-state system since its beginning.
Between 1689 and 1815, a series of wars were
fought on an increasingly global scale to determine power relations
on the continent. These wars are known collectively as the Second
Hundred Years' War. No one of these wars was a duel between France
and England, but in each of them one or more of the other European
powers were engaged. England considered the objective of these wars
to be the defense of Protestantism and English liberties through the
containment of French continental ambitions, the balance of power,
and global trade dominance. France's objectives were also global
trade dominance, continental power, and to expand its borders into
the Low Countries and along the Rhine.
Early Colonialism and Empires
- Right of Prior Discovery
- superior technology, not culture, the key
to Europe's power
- four stages of European
involvement
- Mercantilism
- mercantile empires
- geography of empires
- home country's relationship with
colonies
- colonial struggles linked to power balance
on continent: England and France
Second Hundred Years' War
(1687-1815)
- Causes: balance of power; commercial and
colonial competition
- War of League of Augsburg
(1689-1697) (also Unit III)
- War ends when belligerants become
exhausted
- Treaty of Ryswick (1697)
- War of the Spanish Succession
(1701-1714)
- Hapsburg and Bourbon houses claim throne
of Spain(see Unit III)
- England sides w/Austrian
Hapsburgs
- France exhausted, sues for
peace
- in the American colonies (Queen Anne's
War)
- Treaty of Utrecht
- there followed thirty years of
"peace"--Walpole and Fleury
- Anglo-Spanish War (War of Jenkins's Ear)
(1739)
- War of the Austrian Succession
(1744-1748)
- Austrian Charles VI dies (1740)
Pragmatic Sanction
- Maria Theresa take throne
- England drawn in to preserve balance of
power between Austria and France
- Treatiy of Aix-la-Chapelle
- The Diplomatic Revolution (1756)
- Seven Years' War (1756-1763)
- William Pitt the Elder: fight the war in
the colonies, not on the continent
- Pitt's goal in North America: take out
the French in St. Lawrence and Mississippi Valley
- Treaty of Paris (1763)
- England and France left heavily in debt,
attempts to get out of debt lead to two revolutions
- France needs top to bottom restructuring
(Unit VI)
- England
- American Revolution (1775-1783)
- for details, take AP United States
History next year
- French and Dutch back colonists to
lessen British power
- British in heavy debt from previous
wars
- French Revolution (1789-1797) (Unit
VI)
- Napoleonic Wars (1797-1815) (Unit
VI)