Seven Years' Stalemate

Albany Plan of Union
The delegates of the Albany Congress on July 10, 1754 agree with Benjamin Franklin's proposal to create a unified government for the Thirteen Colonies. At the Congress they then decided that they should have some sort of independence from Great Britain so on October 7, 1754 they published the Proclamation of Federation which angered the King and Parliament. They responded by punishing them by instituting more taxes, restricting them from trade, deploying troops in towns, and restricted them from venturing west past the Appalachian Mountains. These actions started the Seven Years' War in North America with the American colonists aligning themselves with France, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, and Russia.