We have now reached the opening of a series of great wars, destined to
last with short intervals of peace for nearly half a century, and
having, amid many misleading details, one broad characteristic
distinguishing them from previous, and from many subsequent, wars. This strife embraced the four quarters of the world, and that not only as side issues here and there, the main struggle being in Europe; for the great questions to be determined by it, concerning the world's history, were the dominion of the sea and the control of distant countries, the possession of colonies, and, dependent upon these, the increase of wealth. Singularly enough it is not till nearly the end of the long contest that great fleets are found engaging, and the struggle transferred to its proper field, the sea. The action of sea power is evident enough, the issue plainly indicated from the beginning but for a long time there is no naval warfare of any consequence, because the truth is not recognized by the French government. The movement toward colonial extension by France is wholly popular. Though illustrated by a few great names the attitude of the rulers is cold and mistrustful hence came neglect of the navy, a foregone conclusion of defeat on the main question, and destruction for the time of her sea power.
Such being the character of the coming wars, it is important to
realize the relative positions of the three great powers in those
quarters of the world, outside of Europe, where the strife was to
engage. In North America, England now held the thirteen colonies, the
original United States, from Maine to Georgia. In these colonies was
to be found the highest development of that form of colonization
peculiar to England, bodies of free men essentially self-governing
and self-dependent, still enthusiastically loyal, and by occupation at
once agricultural, commercial, and sea-faring. In the character of
their country and its productions, in its long sea-coast and sheltered
harbors, and in their own selves, they had all the elements of sea
power, which had already received large development. On such a country
and such a people the royal navy and army were securely based in the
western hemisphere. The English colonists were intensely jealous of
the French and Canadians.
France held Canada and Louisiana, a name much more extensive in its
application then than now, and claimed the entire valley of the Ohio
and Mississippi, by right of prior discovery, and as a necessary link
between the St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico. There was as yet no
adequate occupation of this intermediate country, nor was the claim
admitted by England, whose colonists asserted the right to extend
indefinitely westward. The strength of the French position was in
Canada; the St. Lawrence gave them access to the heart of the country, and though Newfoundland and Nova Scotia had been lost, in Cape Breton Island they still held the key of the gulf and river. Canada had the characteristics of the French colonial system planted in a climate least suited to it. A government paternal, military, and monkish discouraged the development of individual enterprise and of free association for common ends. The colonists abandoned commerce and agriculture, raising only food enough for immediate consumption, and were given to arms and hunting. Their chief traffic was in furs. There was so little mechanical art among them that they bought of the English colonies part of the vessels for their interior navigation. The chief element of strength was the military, arms-bearing character of the population; each man was a soldier.
Besides the hostility inherited from the mother-countries, there was a
necessary antagonism between two social and political systems, so
directly opposed, and lying one alongside the other. The remoteness of
Canada from the West Indies, and the inhospitable winter climate, made
it, from the naval point of view, of much less value to France than
the English colonies to England; besides which the resources and
population were greatly inferior. In 1750 the population of Canada was
eighty thousand, that of the English colonies twelve hundred thousand. With such disparity of strength and resources, the only chance for Canada lay in the support of the sea power of France, either by direct control of the neighboring seas, or by such powerful diversion elsewhere as would relieve the pressure upon her.