North American phase of a war between France and Britain to control colonial territory (1754–63).
The war's more complex European phase was the Seven Years' War . Earlier phases of the quest for overseas mastery were King William's War (1689–97), Queen Anne's War (1702–13), and King George's War (1744–48). The North American dispute was whether the upper Ohio River valley was a part of the British empire or part of the French Empire; the bigger question was which national culture would dominate the heart of North America. British settlers were the majority in the coveted area, but French exploration, trade, and Indian alliances predominated. In 1754 the French ousted a British force, including a colonial militia under Col. Quebec (1759) led to the fall of New France (1760). In the Treaty of Paris (1763) France ceded its North American territory to Britain.