Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), as it was known in the English colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England in North America for control of the continent. The conflict was part of the War of the Spanish Succession, which was primarily fought in Europe. In addition to the two main combatants, the war also involved numerous American Indian tribes allied with each nation, and Spain, which was allied with France.
The war was fought on three fronts. The English colonies of New England fought with French and Indian forces based in Acadia and Canada, whose capital, Quebec, was repeatedly targeted (without ever being successfully reached) by British expeditions. On Newfoundland, the English colonial presence at St. John's disputed control of the island with the French based at Plaisance. Spanish Florida and the English Province of Carolina were also each subjected to repeated attacks from the other, and Carolinians also tried to dispute the French presence at Mobile.
The southern war, while it did not result in significant territorial changes, had the effect of nearly wiping out the Indian population of Spanish Florida, including parts of present-day southern Georgia, and destroying Spain's network of missions in the area. The war between New France and New England was dominated by French and Indian raids against targets in Massachusetts (including present-day Maine), and repeated English attacks that resulted in the taking of Acadia's capital, Port Royal, in 1710. In Newfoundland the war consisted of economic raids against the other side's settlements.
The Treaty of Utrecht ended the war in 1713. It resulted in the French cession of claims to the territories of Hudson Bay, Acadia, and Newfoundland to Britain, while retaining Cape Breton and other islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Some of its terms were ambiguous, setting the stage for future conflicts.
In 1701, following the death in late 1700 of King Charles II of Spain, war broke out over who should succeed him to the Spanish throne. Although the war was at first restricted to a few powers in Europe, in May 1702 it widened when England declared war on Spain and France. While the main impetus for hostilities in North America came as a consequence of this war declaration, the hostilities were abetted by frictions along the frontier areas separating the colonies of these powers. These frictions were most pronounced along the northern and southwestern frontiers of the English colonies, which then stretched from the Province of Carolina in the south to the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the north, with additional colonial settlements or trading outposts on Newfoundland and at Hudson Bay. The population centers of these colonies, some of which were still quite small, were concentrated along the coast, with small settlements inland, sometimes reaching as far as the Appalachian Mountains. The interior of the continent, to the west of the Appalachians and south of the Great Lakes, was poorly known, and dominated by native tribes, although French and English traders had penetrated the area. Spanish missionaries in Florida had established a network of missions, pacifying and converting to Christianity many of the local natives. French explorers had located the mouth of the Mississippi River, where they established a small colonial presence in 1699 at Fort Maurepas, near present-day Biloxi, Mississippi.[7] From there they began to establish trade routes into the interior, making friendly relations with the Choctaw, a large tribe whose natural enemies included the British-allied Chickasaw.
The arrival of the French in the South threatened existing trade links that Carolina colonists had established into the interior, and Spanish territorial claims, creating tension among all three powers. France and Spain, which were allied in this conflict, had been on opposite sides of the recently-ended Nine Years War. Conflicting territorial claims between Carolina and Florida south of the Savannah River were overlaid by animosity over religious divisions between the Roman Catholic Spanish and the Protestant English along the coast.
To the north, the conflict held a strong economic component in addition to territorial disputes. Newfoundland was the site of a British colony based at St. John's, while the French colonial base was at Plaisance, with both holding a number of smaller permanent settlements. The island also had many seasonal settlements used by fishermen from Europe. These colonists competed with one another for the fisheries of the Grand Banks, which were also used by fishermen from Acadia (which then encompassed all of present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) and Massachusetts. The border area between New France and Massachusetts (which then included the District of Maine) was also uncertain; there was a French settlement in Penobscot Bay near the site of modern Castine, Maine that had already been the site of conflict during [[King William's War], and the territory between the Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers had been contested in that conflict. The frontier areas between the Saint Lawrence River and the primarily coastal settlements of Massachusetts and New York were still dominated by natives (primarily Abenaki and Iroquois), and the Hudson River–Lake Champlain corridor had also been used for raiding expeditions in both directions in earlier conflicts. While the Indian threat had receded somewhat due to reductions in the native population as a result of King William's War, they were still seen to pose a potent threat to outlying settlements.
Prominent French and English colonists understood at the turn of the 18th century that control of the Mississippi River would have a significant role in future development and trade, and each developed visionary plans to thwart the other's activities. The French Canadian explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville had, in the aftermath of King William's War (ended in 1698) developed a "Project sur la Caroline" that called for developing relationships with natives in the Mississippi watershed and then leveraging those relationships to push the English off the continent. In pursuit of this grand strategy he rediscovered the mouth of the Mississippi (which had first been found by La Salle in 1670), and established Fort Maurepas in 1699. From this base, and Mobile (founded in 1702), he began to establish relationships with the local Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez tribes.
English traders and explorers from Carolina had, since its founding in 1670, already established a substantial trading network across the southeastern part of the continent that extended all the way to the Mississippi. Its leaders, who had little respect for the Spanish in Florida, understood the threat posed by the French arrival on the coast. Joseph Blake, Carolina's governor until his death in 1700, and James Moore, who succeeded Blake in 1702, both articulated visions of expansion to the south and west at the expense of French and Spanish interests.
In January 1702, before the war broke out in Europe, Iberville had approached the Spanish and recommended that the Apalachee Indians be armed and sent against the English and their allies. The Spanish organized an expedition under Francisco Romo de Uriza that left Pensacola in August for the trading centers of the Carolina backcountry. The English, with advance warning of the expedition, organized a defense at the head of the Flint River and routed the Spanish-led force, with upwards of 500 Indians killed or captured.
When formal notification of hostilities arrived, Governor Moore organized and led a force against Spanish Florida. In the 1702 Siege of St. Augustine, 500 English soldiers and militia along with 300 Indians captured and burned the town of St. Augustine. The English were unable to take the main fortress, and withdrew when a Spanish fleet arrived from Havana. In 1706 Carolina successfully repulsed a second attack on Charles Town by a combined Spanish and French amphibious force sent from Havana.
The Apalachee and Timucua of Spanish Florida were virtually wiped out in a raiding expedition by Moore that became known as the Apalachee Massacre of 1704. Many of the survivors of these raids were relocated to the Savannah River, where they were confined to reservations. Raids consisting of large native forces led by a small number of white men continued in the following years. The Muscogee (Creek), Yamasee, and Chickasaw, armed and led by Englishmen, dominated these conflicts at the expense of the Choctaw, Timucua, and Apalachee, the latter being largely pacific in nature.
In 1703, New England settlements from Wells in the District of Maine to Falmouth (present-day Portland, Maine) were ravaged by 500 Indians and a few Canadians led by Leneuf de Beaubassin. Over 160 settlers were killed or taken prisoner. In February 1704, Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville led 250 Abenaki and Caughnawaga Indians and 50 French Canadians in a Raid on Deerfield in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and destroyed the settlement, killing and capturing many colonists. These were taken on a grueling journey to the Caughnawaga settlement, where most of the children who survived were adopted by the Mohawk people. Some adults were later redeemed or released in negotiated prisoner exchanges. Unable to reach these settlements, New England colonists retaliated by launching an expedition against Acadia. Led by the famous Indian fighter Benjamin Church, the expedition raided Grand Pre, Beaubassin, and other settlements. While French accounts include a claim that Church also made an attempt on Acadia's capital, Port Royal, Church's own account of the expedition describes a war council in which the expedition decides against making an attack.
Raiding activity continued against northern Massachusetts settlements in 1705, against which the English colonists were unable to mount either effective offense or defense. The raids happened too quickly for defense forces to organize, and attempts at reprisal would almost invariably find Indian camps and settlements empty. There was a lull in the raiding when the French and English leaders negotiated, with only limited success, the exchange of prisoners. Raids by Indians, sometimes with French participation, persisted until the end of the war.
In May 1707, Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley organized an expedition to take Port Royal. Led by Joseph March, 1,600 men failed to take the fort; a followup expedition in August was also repulsed. In response, the French developed an ambitious plan to raid most of the New Hampshire settlements on the Piscataqua River. However, much of the Indian support needed never materialized, and the Massachusetts town of Haverhill was raided instead. In 1709, Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, governor of New France, reported that two thirds of the fields north of Boston were unattended due to French and Indian raids. French-Indian war parties were returning without prisoners because the New England colonists stayed in their forts and would not come out.
In September 1710, 3,600 British and colonial forces led by Francis Nicholson finally captured Port Royal after a siege of one week. This ended official French control of the peninsular portion of Acadia (present-day mainland Nova Scotia), although resistance continued until the end of the war.
The French in New France's heartland, Canada, opposed attacking the Province of New York because they were reluctant to arouse the Iroquois, whom they feared more than the British, and with whom they had made the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701. New York merchants were opposed to attacking New France, because it would interrupt the lucrative Indian fur trade, much of which came through New France. In spite of the efforts of Peter Schuyler, the Albany commissioner of Indians, to interest them in the war, the Iroquois remained neutral for much of the conflict.
Francis Nicholson and Samuel Vetch, with some financial and logistical support from the queen, organized an ambitious assault against New France in 1709. The plan involved an overland assault on Montreal via Lake Champlain and a sea-based assault by naval forces against Quebec. The land expedition reached the southern end of Lake Champlain, but was called off when the promised naval support for the attack on Quebec never materialized (those forces were diverted to support Portugal). The Iroquois had made vague promises of support for this effort, but successfully delayed sending support until it seemed clear the expedition was going to fail. After this failure, Nicholson and Schuyler traveled to London accompanied by King Hendrick and other sachems to arouse interest in the North American frontier war. The Indian delegation caused a sensation in London, and Queen Anne granted them an audience. Nicholson and Schuyler were successful in their endeavour—the queen gave support for Nicholson's successful capture of Port Royal in 1710. With that success under his belt, Nicholson again returned to England, and gained support for a renewed attempt on Quebec in 1711.
The plan for 1711 again called for land and sea-based attacks; its execution was a disaster. A fleet of 15 ships of the line and transports carrying 5,000 troops led by Admiral Hovenden Walker arrived at Boston in June, doubling the town's population and greatly straining the colony's ability to provide the needed provisions. Sailing for Quebec at the end of July, the expedition entered the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and many of its ships foundered on the rocky shores near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence in the fog. More than 700 troops were lost, and Walker called the expedition off. In the meantime, Nicholson had departed for Montreal overland, but had only reached Lake George when word of Walker's disaster reached him; he also turned back. In this expedition, the Iroquois provided several hundred warriors to fight with the English, but they also sent warnings of the expedition to the French.
Newfoundland, while sparsely populated, was dotted with small communities by both the French and English, with some fishing stations occupied seasonally by fishermen from Europe. Both sides had fortified their principal towns, the French at Plaisance on the western side of the Avalon Peninsula, the English at St. John's on Conception Bay. During King William's War, d'Iberville had raided the English communities in 1696–7; the island again became a battle ground in 1702. In August of that year, an English fleet under the command of Commodore John Leake descended on the outlying French communities but made no attempts on Plaisance. During the winter of 1705 Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, the French governor at Plaisance, retaliated, leading a combined French and Mi'kmaq expedition that destroyed several English settlements and unsuccessfully besieged Fort William at St. John's. The French and their Indian allies continued to harry the English throughout the summer, and did damages claimed at £188,000 to the English establishments.The English sent a fleet in 1706 that destroyed French fishing outposts on the island's northern coasts. In December 1708 the French, using a combination of French, Canadian and Mi'kmaq volunteers, captured St. John's, and destroyed the fortifications. Lacking the resources to hold the prize, they abandoned it, and St. John's was reoccupied and refortified by the English in 1709. (The same French expedition also tried to take Ferryland, but it successfully resisted.)
English fleet commanders contemplated, but did not make, attacks on Placentia in 1703 and 1711 (the latter by Admiral Walker in the aftermath of the disaster at the mouth of the St. Lawrence)
In 1712, Britain and France declared an armistice, and a final peace was agreed the following year. Under terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Britain gained Acadia (which they renamed Nova Scotia), sovereignty over Newfoundland, the Hudson Bay region, and the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. France was required to recognize British suzerainty over the Iroquois, and agree that commerce with the far Native Americans would be open to all nations. It retained all of the islands in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, including Cape Breton Island, and retained fishing rights in the area, including rights to dry fish on the western shore of Newfoundland.
Native populations, especially the Abenaki that had dominated the frontier areas of northern New England, were reduced by the war. They began to recede to the north, a process that was continued in Lord Dummer's War in the 1720s. Following military action by James Moore against the Tuscaroras of North Carolina (part of the Tuscarora War begun in 1711), many of them fled north as refugees to join their linguistic cousins, the Iroquois.
Spanish Florida never really recovered from the decimation of its population in the war, and was ceded to Britain following the Seven Years War in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. Indians that had been resettled along the Atlantic coast chafed under British rule, as did those allied to the British in this war. This discontent flared into the 1715 Yamasee War that posed a major threat to South Carolina's viability. The loss of population in the Spanish territories contributed to the 1732 founding of the Province of Georgia, which was, like Carolina, granted on territory Spain had originally claimed.
The loss of Newfoundland and Acadia restricted the French presence on the Atlantic to Cape Breton Island. French settlers from Newfoundland were resettled there, creating the colony of Île-Royale, and France constructed the Fortress of Louisbourg in the following years. This presence, combined with the rights to use the Newfoundland shore, resulted in continued friction between French and British fishing interests, some of which were not resolved until late in the 18th century.
Friction over Acadia's territories also persisted. The treaty was vague about describing its boundaries, which even the French had never really formally described. France insisted that only the Acadian peninsula (modern Nova Scotia except Cape Breton Island) were included in the treaty, and that they retained the rights to modern New Brunswick. This dispute would not be fully resolved until the British conquest of all French North American territories in the area in the Seven Years War.
The French did not comply with the commerce provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht. They attempted to prevent English trade with the far Indians and erected Fort Niagara in Iroquois territory. French settlements on the Gulf Coast continued to grow, with the settlement of New Orleans in 1718, and other, ultimately unsuccessful, attempts to expand into Spanish-controlled Texas and Florida. French trading networks penetrated into the waterways feeding the Gulf of Mexico, renewing conflicts with both the British and the Spanish. Those established in the Mississippi River watershed, including the Ohio River valley, also brought the French into more contact with British trading networks and colonial settlements that had crossed the Appalachian Mountains, leading to renewed conflict in 1754, when the French and Indian War broke out.
