GUERRA DEI SETTE ANNI. — After the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, the continental Powers sought to prepare a coalition against Prussia, which Austria regarded as a dangerous rival in Germany and Russia as an obstacle to its advance westward. This induced England to reach an understanding with Prussia, concluded in 1756 with the Treaty of Alliance of Westminster; and this prompted France, already concerned about England’s penetration of the Mediterranean, to join Austria, overturning the traditional system of its alliances. Immediately afterward 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 defeated by the English. In 1761 France requested peace, and London’s refusal led to the conclusion of the “family compact” between the Bourbon courts and to Spain’s intervention. Benedict XIV rejoiced in the alliance among the Catholic Powers, but while Frederick II, during the first phase of the campaign, had sought to give the war a religious character, Benedict and his successor Clement XIII made every effort to preserve its exclusively political character (Protestant princes also 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 the wars of succession, England alone emerged victorious: it had brought down Spanish power, eliminated France’s hegemony by partly destroying its colonial Empire, and, by alternately setting Habsburgs and Bourbons against one another and favouring the consolidation of Prussia, had established in Europe that balance of forces which was the foundation of its policy.