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1718. Charles XII. Killed at the siege of Frederickshall.
1725. Death of Peter the Great of Russia.
1740. Frederick II. King of Prussia. He attacks the Austrian dominions, and conquers
Silesia.
1742. War between France and England.
1743. Victory of the English at Dettingen.
1745. Victory of the French at Fontenoy. Rebellion in Scotland in favor of the house of Stuart; finally
quelled by the battle of Culloden in the next year.
1748. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
1756-1763. The Seven Years' War, during which Prussia makes a heroic resistance against the armies of
Austria, Russia, and France. England, under the administration of the elder Pitt (afterward Lord Chatham), takes a glorious part in the war in
opposition to France and Spain. Wolfe wins the battle of Quebec, and the English conquer Canada, Cape Breton, and St. John. Clive begins his
career of conquest in India. The English takes Cuba from Spain.
1763. Treaty of Paris; which leaves the power of Prussia increased, and its military reputation greatly
exalted.
"France, by the treaty of Paris, ceded to England, Canada and the island of Cape Breton, with the
islands and coasts of the gulf and river of St. Lawrence. The boundaries between the two nations in North America were fixed by a line drawn
along the middle of the Mississippi, from its source to its mouth. All on the left or eastern bank of that river was given up to England, except
the city of New Orleans, which was reserved to France, as was also the liberty of the fisheries on a part of the coasts of Newfoundland and the
Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The islands of St. Peter and Miquelon were given them as a shelter for their fishermen, but without
permission to raise fortifications. The islands of Martinico, Guadaloupe, Mariegalante, Desirada, and St. Lucia were surrendered to France, while
Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago were ceded to England. This latter power retained her conquests on the Senegal, and
restored to France the island of Gorea, on the coast of Africa. France was put in possession of the forts and factories which belonged to her in
the East Indies, on the coasts of Coromandel, Orissa, Malabar, and Bengal, under the restriction of keeping up no military force in Bengal.
"
In Europe, France restored all the conquests she had made in Germany, as also the island of Minorca.
England gave up to her Belleisle, on the coast of Brittany', while Dunkirk was kept in the same condition as had been determined by the peace of
Aix-la-Chapelle. The island of Cuba, with the Havana, was restored to the King of Spain, who, on his part, ceded to England Florida, with Port
Augustine and the Bay of Pensacola. The King of Portugal was restored to the same state in which he had been before the war. The colony of St.
Sacrament in America, which the Spaniards had conquered, was given back to him. "
The peace of Paris, of which we have just now spoken, was the era of England's greatest prosperity. Her
commerce and navigation extended over all parts of the globe, and were supported by a naval force, so much the more imposing, as it was no longer
counterbalanced by the maritime power of France, which had been almost annihilated in the preceding war. The immense territories which that peace
had secured her, both in Africa and America, opened up new channels for her industry' and what deserves specially to be remarked is, that she
acquired at the same time vast and important possessions in the East Indies."
Pultowa
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