SEVEN YEARS’ WAR. — After the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle the continental Powers aimed to prepare a coalition against Prussia, which Austria regarded as a dangerous rival in Germany and Russia as an obstacle to its march westward. This induced England to reach an understanding with Prussia, concluded in 1756 with the Treaty of Westminster; and this decided France, already concerned by England’s Mediterranean penetration, to join Austria, overturning the traditional system of its alliances. Immediately afterwards England declared war on France, and Frederick II attacked Austria.
But after initial successes Frederick was repeatedly defeated, and he was saved from utter ruin only by the death of Tsarina Elizabeth and Russia’s subsequent withdrawal from the coalition. Meanwhile the French fleets were being routed by the English. In 1761 France sought peace, and London’s refusal brought about the “Family Compact” between the Bourbon courts and Spain’s intervention. The alliance among the Catholic Powers was welcomed by Benedict XIV, but whereas Frederick II in the first phase of the campaign had tried to give the war a religious colouring, Benedict and his successor Clement XIII made every effort to maintain its exclusively political character (even Protestant princes fought against Prussia). With the Peace of Paris (1763) Frederick II obtained Silesia; France ceded Canada, almost all of India, Senegal and other colonies to England; Spain ceded Florida.
In this war and in those of succession, England alone emerged victorious, having overthrown Spanish power, eliminated French hegemony by partly destroying the colonial empire, and alternately opposing the Habsburgs and the Bourbons, while favouring the consolidation of Prussia, it had established in Europe that balance of power which was the foundation of its policy.