RELATIONS BETWEEN UNITED STATES AND GERMANY, 535 



ment of the great North American confederation with that of the 

 Prussian Kingdom, indeed with that of the new German I^nipire. if 

 we recognize Prussia as the backbone of that Empire, and that King 

 Frederick in the Seven Years' war, beginning Avith unsettled con- 

 ditions, filled out and firmly united this backbone. In truth the Seven 

 Years' war was by no means limited to the Gernuuw of that period, 

 Austria, and Europe. It affected as no previous war had done the 

 Western Hemisphere and laid there the foundation for the wide- 

 reaching power of the United States. England, at first in alliance 

 with Frederick, attacked France, the enemy of Frederick, upon the sea 

 and in North America, where at that time Canada and the entire 

 interior beyond the English coast colonies as far as the great Missis- 

 sippi River and the southern shores along the Gulf of Mexico were 

 under French domination. After an unfortunate beginning in the 

 conduct of the war on the part of the English, the day of Quebec, 

 September 13, 1759, when two brave connnanders, Wolfe and Mont- 

 calm, pitted themselves against each other and both lost their lives, 

 decided the conflict in favor of Albion. As a victor's prize for this 

 battle, which was small indeed as regards the number of combatants, 

 but almost unexampled in its conduct and far-reaching results, the 

 English obtained the whole of Canada, as well as unobstructed access 

 to the Mississippi from the coast. " The Seven Years' war," sa,ys Ban- 

 croft " in this connection, " extended the English colonies to the 

 Mississippi and gave Canada to England. ' We conquered America 

 in German}^,' said the elder Pitt, ascribing to Frederick a share in 

 the extension of the Germanic race in the other hemisphere: and in 

 like manner Frederick in his histories treats the English movement 

 in America and his own struggles in Europe all as one so long as 

 Pitt was at the helm." 



In this sudden extension of English rule over so wide an area of 

 American soil it is easy to recognize one of the quietly Avorking 

 factors that led, a few years later, to the separation of the States of 

 the Union from old England. George Washington. Avho as colonel in 

 the Seven Years' war helped to win for England this vast country 

 from its jjossessors, Avas the illustrious leader avIio afterAvards freed 

 it from her domination and the great statesman Avho secured perma- 

 nent stability from the first fortunate successes. After the ])ea('e of 

 Paris, in 1763, the-lhirteen English colonial states became aware of the 

 future that lay before them — they also had proAcd their sti'ength in the 

 " ScA^en Years' " or rather '' Nine Years' '' Avar with France — and al- 

 most from that hour Ave may note their obstinate opi)Osition to the 

 measures of the mother country to Avhich they had not agreed, until, 



a History of the United States, Vol. X, p. 86. Boston, 1874. 



