Queen Anne's War
| date | 1702 to 1713 |
|---|---|
| place | North America and the oceans |
| output | Peace of Utrecht (1713) |
Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), named after the British Queen Anne (1665–1714), was the second of the four French and Indian Wars in which France and the Kingdom of Great Britain in North America fought for control of the continent. The War of the Spanish Succession , which was raging in Europe at the same time (see also the Great Hague Alliance ), found a parallel theater of war here.
prehistory
Tensions between the two colonial powers, France and England , arose before 1700. The war in Europe seemed an opportune occasion to end these disputes in North America with another war. The French colony of New France has always been economically based on the fur trade in North America . However, the hunting grounds were soon cleared and new hunting areas had to be developed. The catchment area was extended over the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River to the south and north to Hudson Bay . The interests of the English colonies, whose economy was based on agriculture (including plantations), fishing, manufacturing and also on the fur trade, were also directed towards Hudson Bay and the Mississippi region. Another source of disputes was the French Acadia and Newfoundland, with their rich fishing grounds. English fishermen repeatedly ventured into French waters.
The 13 English colonies were populated by about 300,000 people, whereas in New France only approximately 12,000 settlers lived. The expansionist urge of the 13 colonies was contrary to the French interests regarding the fur trade.
Warfare specifics
The warfare in colonial North America cannot be compared with that of the European wars of alliance such as the Palatinate War or the War of the Spanish Succession . The “offensives” often took place on a very small scale, and it was not uncommon for a group of 100 militiamen to be dubbed an army. The armies in the colonies, especially the English, were largely recruited from militiamen , as the regular soldiers were needed on the European battlefields. On the French side, due to the lack of peasants or craftsmen who could be released, these war participants were mainly composed of Allied Indians and regular units.
The direction of the attacks was determined by the interaction of the indigenous population and the French. The Caughnawaga had a kind of neutrality treaty with the settlers of New York ; Undermining this had to be the goal of the French. The Abenaki , attracted by the cheaper and better goods of the English colonies , had to be reliably won as allies so that France would not lose this important ally. Because of these constraints, the borders of Massachusetts and New York became the main target of French Indigenous attacks. Likewise, the peace agreed with the Iroquois in 1701 ( Great Peace of Montreal ) had to be preserved, which is why reaching out in the direction of their hunting grounds was made impossible in order not to risk an alliance between the English and the Iroquois, the memories of the Iroquois Wars were too heavy . These war parties moved like guerrilla fighters in the thicket to an English village and attacked it at a favorable moment; they disappeared as quickly as they came.
The French set themselves the goal of never allowing the numerically superior English to penetrate into French territories and to bind their forces in the border regions of New England . For a long time, the English settlers contented themselves with raising militias to monitor and protect the borders. The length caused problems. This led the governors to believe that the best defense was the offensive against New France . Militias were recruited several times, which by far exceeded the strength of 1000 men. However, because of the very restrained or even lack of support from the motherland, large-scale attack plans had to be discarded. The absence of transport ships made it impossible to move the militiamen to New France as quickly as possible.
The war in North America was thus limited to very small areas, no open field battles were waged because the vegetation did not allow this, and the loss of human life never reached the number of the European theater of war.
Course of war
In 1702, at the beginning of the war, the English captured St. Augustine, Spain . English military support to the colonists was largely ineffective or diverted by defending the areas of Charleston, South Carolina , the New York - New England Front, and the Canadian Territories. French forces and Indian tribes attacked New England from Canada and destroyed Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1704 . In the following years the French continued the guerrilla warfare, but the climax was the Deerfield massacre , in which the French and Indians under the command of Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville (1668–1722) attacked Deerfield, killing 56 residents and burning parts of the settlement. The British were preparing a counter-attack that would finally drive the French out of North America . They wanted to conquer New France and convert it to an English (or British) crown colony . The plans failed in 1709 after assured reinforcements from the motherland were needed on the European battlefields. The offensive should now be directed against the French Acadia with the capital Port Royal . Port Royal was besieged for almost two weeks before the French surrendered. With the capture of Port Royal in 1710, the British had secured control of access to New France. In 1711 the Québec Expedition , the British attempt to conquer the city of Québec , failed after a serious shipwreck that killed 890 people. In 1712 an armistice was declared. The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 ended the war in North America.
The Peace of Utrecht
Under the terms of the Peace of Utrecht, Britain received Acadia in the old frontiers, Newfoundland , the Hudson Bay region and the Caribbean island of St. Kitts . The regulations for Acadia were to coincide with the next of the French and Indian Wars , King George's War in 1744. Traffic in and out of New France could now be monitored by the British. France had lost access to almost all fishing grounds, only off Newfoundland were they granted fishing rights. The recently developed fur grounds of Hudson Bay had passed forever to the British. This peace likely marked the beginning of the end of the French colonies in North America.
The British conquest of Acadia brought severe consequences for the French people. In 1755, during the French and Indian War , many were deported from the colony. Freedoms such as freedom of religion were denied to those who wanted to remain resident . Some moved to Louisiana .
Remarks
In 1707 England and Scotland were united as the Kingdom of Great Britain with a common parliament in Westminster under the Act of Union 1707 . Since then, people have spoken of the British and not the English. Thereafter, the Scottish troops joined their English counterparts in that war.
See also
- King Philip's War (1675–1676)
- King William's War (1689-1697)
- King George's War (1744-1748)
- French and Indian War (1754–1763), not to be confused with the French and Indian Wars
- Cajun
literature
- Francis Parkman: A Half-Century of Conflict . Macmillan London, 1892, ISBN 1-4191-0144-7 .
- Udo Sautter : History of Canada . Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44737-6 .
- Helmut Riege: North America I. United States and Canada. Geography, history, political system, law . Beck, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-406-06774-3 .
- Claudia Schnurmann : From an island kingdom to a world power. The development of the English empire from the Middle Ages to the 20th century . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016192-X .