CANADA HISTORY - Clash of Empires

The Clash of Empires was not the first time that England and France went to war, but it was the first truly global war. From Europe to America, from India to the Mediterranean, the two countries engage each other on land and at sea. The seven years war was not planned and started in Europe but was trigger by events on the North American frontier. The prize was global reach and empire, and the North American battlefield stretched from the Caribbean to Quebec City. At stake was not only the traditional European objectives and prizes but the survival and extension of New France for France or the elimination and absorption of France's control over the entire North American wilderness. One of the key factors to this struggle was naval power and although France and England committed ships and resources to the Ocaen war, it was the British who ultimately understood the ultimate power of naval supremeacy and that the key to North American victory lie in ships and their effective use.