The First Global War: Britain, France, and the Fate of North America, 1756-1775

by William R. Nester

By 1756 the wilderness war for control of North America that erupted two years earlier between France and England had expanded into a global struggle among all of Europe's Great Powers. Its land and sea battles raged across the North American continent, engulfed Europe and India, and stretched from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific waters. The new conflict, now commonly known as the Seven Years' War of 1756-1763, was a direct continuation of the last French and Indian War. This study explores the North American campaigns in relation to events elsewhere in the world, from the ministries of Whitehall and Versailles to the land and sea battles in Europe, Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean.

Few wars have had a more decisive effect on international relations and national development. The French and Indian War resulted in France's expulsion from almost all of the Western Hemisphere, except for some tiny islands in the Caribbean and St. Lawrence. Britain emerged as the world's dominant sea power and would remain so for two centuries. Finally, within a generation or two the vast debts incurred by Whitehall and Versailles in waging this war would help to stimulate revolutions in America and France that would forever change world history.

Genres: History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

William Nester, PhD is a Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. He is the author of twenty-five books that explore varying dimensions and subjects of international relations and power. He taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London from 1987 to 1989, and since then at St. John's University.He received a BA in international studies and history from Miami University of Ohio, and a MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Reviews

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book is rather misleading, since it is almost entirely about the North American campaigns. Nester’s book is organized chronologically, with each chapter covering a single year. Nester’s treatment of the campaigns is very detailed, but it would have been nice to have more coverage of the campaigns in India, Africa, the Philippines, and the Caribbean. The campaign for the sugar islands, for example, gets less than a page, as does Manila. Nester covers the various logistics problems experienced by all sides, but not in enough detail.

A fine book, even if Nester sometimes screws up his timeline and terminology on minor matters. There are also the occasional poor editing and typos. And, of course, it would have made more sense to include 1754-1755 in this volume, rather than the previous one. Good as a starting point, though.

[Connor Martinez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative but boring. The last chapter was chaotic, as if the author had a deadline and spent too much time researching regiment names in the first 6 chapters to then only have a couple of days to add a readable conclusion. He had one cool line in like chapter three, but not cool enough to find again or post in a review.

[Darren]

I gave up on the book about 2-3 chapters in. The author kept referring to obscure events and people with the expectation that the reader know exactly what had happened before the events of the book, and I got tired of it.