Seven Years' War

by

Patrick Speelman

• LAST REVIEWED: 27 November 2013
• LAST MODIFIED: 27 November 2013
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0055

Introduction

The Seven Years’ War was a vast conflict and its voluminous historiography reflects its multi-theater nature. Traditionally, works focused on the operations and military campaigns of such great captains as Frederick the Great, General Wolfe, or Lord Clive, to name a few. This old-fashioned “drum and trumpet” history often overemphasized the great battles at the expense of lesser known engagements and theaters, and it was essentially Eurocentric. Lost in the fog of war were the context of military operations and often any appreciation of the non-European participants and combatants. Recently, newer literature has brought into focus the context in which the war was fought (diplomatic, economic, social, etc.), with the result that we now have a more scholarly and nuanced portrait of the conflict. Most of the literature can be divided among the main theaters of war: Europe, North America, and India. But the global nature and maritime operations evident in the conflict suggest that the historiography should grow in other directions, as fighting occurred on every continent except Antarctica. A new appreciation for the economic importance of the 18th century in general and of the Seven Years’ War in particular, as the progenitor of the fiscal-military state, also drives current scholarship. Finally, over the past decade an appreciation of the war by sociocultural historians has taken root, and some of the most thought-provoking scholarship has emerged from this school. Overall, the trend toward both understanding the conflict as a global phenomenon that bled over into other areas and recognizing that the war entailed regional conflicts around the world should be the emphasis for future studies of the conflict.

Reference Works

There is a dearth of scholarly reference works devoted to the war. For a detailed timeline of events see Dobson 1763. The most useful printed reference is the forty-eight-volume The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence (Walpole 1937–1983). It is a “gateway” to bibliography, primary sources, and biographical and general information on the Seven Years’ War, much of which is found in the annotations and multivolume index. In particular, the correspondence with Henry Seymour Conway, his cousin and deputy to Lord Granby of the British expeditionary force in Germany, is valuable and is available online for free. The chief online resource for contemporary literature, pamphlets, etc., is Gale’s Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO), a full-text database of all books printed in Great Britain during the 18th century. The English Short Title Catalog (ESTC) provides bibliographic information while both Eighteenth-Century Resources and the Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies provide links to documents on the web. For the Annual Register, the Internet Library of Early Journals is a free resource. A good encyclopedic site that addresses statistics of specific battles, sieges, and campaigns (though geared toward buffs) is the Seven Years’ War Project. Overall, what is needed is a full-scale reference encyclopedia for the war.

• Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Indiana University.

  Provides links to online resources for scholars and students in history and literature.

• Dobson, John. Chronological Annals of the War: From Its Beginning to the Present Time. London: Clarendon, 1763.

  Provides a chronicle of all the events in all the theaters in strict chronological order with brief description of those events. A valuable but overlooked reference book.

• Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO).

  The key research database for 18th-century printed books. Contains nearly 200,000 full-text titles.

• Eighteenth-Century Resources.

  Provides links to all facets of 18th-century studies, including links to online primary source collections and documents in history and warfare. Edited and updated by Jack Lynch of Rutgers University.

• English Short Title Catalog (ESTC). Center for Bibliographical Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside.

  A vast bibliographic database of all literature printed in Great Britain, 1473–1800.

• Internet Library of Early Journals: A Digital Library of 18th and 19th Century Journals.

  Contains full text versions of The Annual Register, Volumes 1–21 (1758–1778).

• Seven Years’ War Project.

  An excellent reference source for the war’s armies, navies, regiments, battles, and sieges. Provides details and statistics for most units. A useful reference site.

• Walpole, Horace. The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence. 48 vols. Edited by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1937–1983.

  A primary source for letters and correspondence during the war, this treasure is one of the most useful reference works for 18th-century military history. The annotations by Lewis, the bibliographic and source citations, and the multivolume index serve as comprehensive reference tools for all personalities and events of the war. An indispensable resource.