Seven Years' War (Humble Old Ironsides)

The Seven Years' War was fought around the world between a pair of alliances based around the two predominant powers in Europe at the time: the United Republic of Great Britain led by Lord Protector William Augustus, and the Kingdom of France led by King Louis XV. The two had formed alliances largely based around religiously similar nations around Europe, with the British alliance based in Protestant-heavy northern Europe with Sweden, the United Netherlands, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Electorate of Hanover, as well as the Kingdom of Sardinia. The French alliance was based in Catholic southern Europe with France being allied to Spain, the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy, Bavaria, and Saxony, as well as the Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Russian Empire. Although the war technically began in North America in 1754 in the form of the French and Indian War, European scholars tend to make a distinction between the two based on the time-frame used to define the war and the main locations in which it was fought. After seven years of armed conflict on the continent, the major powers of Europe signed a series of treaties, most famously the Treaty of Paris, which ended Franco-British hostilities. The war would prove to be the first real "world war" as the two sides fought on four continents in their colonial holdings and the treaties that ended the war ushered in an exchange of colonial territories that would set the stage for a series of coming world events based on tensions in North America.