Queen Anne's War (1702–13)
was the second in a series of five French and Indian Wars fought between
France
and England
(later
Great
Britain
) in North America for control of the continent and
was the counterpart of the War of the Spanish Succession
in Europe. In addition to the two main combatants, the war
also involved a number of
American Indian tribes
and Spain, which was allied with France.
Florida
Early in
the war, the Spanish attacked Charleston, South Carolina
and were repulsed. In response, in the
1702 Siege of St.
Augustine , 500 English soldiers and militia along with 300
Indians captured and burned the town of St.
Augustine
in the Spanish province
of Florida. The English were unable to take the main
fortress of St. Augustine, however, so they considered the campaign
a failure. While the Spanish maintained control over Florida, their
mission system was destroyed in the conflict and was never rebuilt.
Carolina
was successful in defeating a second attack on Charles Town in 1706
by a combined Spanish and French amphibious force sent from
Havana
.
The
Apalachee of
Spanish Florida were decimated in what
became known as the
Apalachee
Massacre of 1704. The surviving Apalachee were relocated to the
Savannah River frontier of South
Carolina under a kind of serfdom. They later took part in the
Yamasee War of 1715.
New England and Acadia
In 1703,
New
England
settlements from Wells
in the
District of Maine to Falmouth
(present-day Portland,
Maine
) and Haverhill, Massachusetts
were ravaged by five hundred Indians and a few
Canadians led by Leneuf de
Beaubassin. Over 160 settlers were killed or taken
prisoner. In February 1704,
Hertel de
Rouville with 250 Abenakis and Caughnawaga Indians and 50
French Canadians in the
Deerfield
massacre destroyed the settlement, 150 settlers were killed or
taken prisoner.
In 1709, Vaudreuil reported that two thirds
of the fields north of Boston
were
unattended and the war parties were returning without prisoners
because the colonists stayed in their forts and would not come
out.
In July,
1704, New England colonists successfully attacked the French
settlements of Minas and Beaubassin
in Acadia.
In July
1704, more than 500 colonials failed in a 18 day siege to capture
the Acadian fort at Port Royal
. In May 1707,
Joseph Dudley led another failed expedition of
over 1,600 men to take the fort. In January 1709, the French using
a combination of Canadian and
Mi'kmaq
volunteers captured
St. John's and
destroyed the fortifications.
In September 1710, 3,600 British and colonial
forces led by Francis Nicholson
captured Port Royal after a siege of one week, ending French
control of the peninsular portion of Acadia (present-day mainland
Nova
Scotia
).
Quebec
The French were opposed to attacking the
Province of New York because they were
reluctant to arouse the
Iroquois, whom they
feared more than the British. Meanwhile, the New York merchants
were opposed to attacking
New France,
because it would interrupt the Indian fur trade which was coming
through New France. In 1701 the Iroquois had signed the
Great Peace of Montreal with the
French, and they maintained their neutrality early in the war. When
Nicholas led a failed land expedition against Quebec, in 1709, the
Iroquois promised minimal support, but delayed until the expedition
had been called off. In 1710,
Peter
Schuyler, the Albany commissioner of Indians, went to London
with
King Hendrick and other sachems
to arouse interest in the Northwest frontier.
In 1711, with the
Walker Expedition
and the associated Nicholson Expedition of 1711,
the British planned a joint naval and land attack against Quebec City
, the capital of New France. When the fleet led by
Hovenden Walker was partially sunk
while travelling up the St. Lawrence River
, the naval and land expeditions were called
off. In this expedition the Iroquois provided several
hundred warriors, but they also sent warnings of the expedition to
the French.
Aftermath
In 1712, an armistice was declared.
Under terms of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, Britain gained
Acadia (which they renamed Nova Scotia), the island of Newfoundland
, the Hudson
Bay
region, and the Caribbean
island of St. Kitts
. France was required to recognize British
suzerainty over the Iroquois, and
commerce with the far Native Americans would be open to all
nations.
The French did not comply with the commerce
provision, however, as they attempted to prevent British trade with
the far Indians and erected Fort Niagara
in Iroquois territory.
The peace lasted until the outbreak of the next colonial war,
Dummer's War, in 1724.
The British goals to annexe Quebec and Florida were eventually
accomplished following
Britain's victory in the
Seven Years War and the
Treaty of Paris in 1763.
Notes
- In 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland were
unified as the Kingdom of Great Britain, sharing a
single Parliament at Westminster under the Act of Union
1707. After this, Scottish troops joined their English
counterparts in all colonial wars.
See also
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