Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) was a conflict fought in North America between allied French and Spanish forces and the British. The conflict is named for Queen Anne , who became the first queen of the united kingdom of Great Britain when the English and Scottish kingdoms joined in 1707. Queen Anne’s War was the second of four wars that became known as the French and Indian wars . Fighting in Queen Anne’s War was concentrated in New England and eastern Canada . Attacks also took place in South Carolina and Spanish Florida .
Background.
In the late 1600’s, the French and English, with allied Indians on each side, fought for control of the North American fur trade. Fighting in King William’s War (1689-1697) centered in New York and extended to New England and eastern Canada. In 1701, the French rulers of Canada signed a peace treaty with the Iroquois Confederacy, a group of five indigenous (Native American) nations that had mostly sided with the English. The French agreed to leave the Iroquois settlements in New York undisturbed. This policy also helped keep most of the fighting away from the English settlements on New York’s frontier when war began again.
The war.
War erupted in Europe in 1701 over the question of who would succeed to the Spanish throne. This conflict, called the War of the Spanish Succession , pitted France and Spain against an alliance of England, Austria, the Netherlands, and several German states of the Holy Roman Empire. Fighting spread to North America, where it became known as Queen Anne’s War.
During November and December of 1702, Carolina colonial forces besieged the Spanish settlement at Saint Augustine in Florida. They captured and burned the town but failed to seize the Spanish fort there. Over the next few years, the English and their Native American allies devastated the settlements of Spain’s Apalachee and Timucuan allies. English-allied forces captured many of the Spanish-allied warriors and forced them into slavery. In September 1706, a combined French and Spanish fleet struck Charles Town (now Charleston, South Carolina). However, the Carolina colonists easily drove off the attackers.
To the north, Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, the French governor of Canada, encouraged French-allied warriors of the Wabanaki Confederacy to attack English settlements in New England. The French hoped that such fighting would slow English settlement.
In late February 1704, a French and indigenous force of about 250 men advanced on the town of Deerfield, in western Massachusetts. The force killed some 50 townspeople and took about 110 prisoners. Massachusetts Colonel Benjamin Church soon organized an army to retaliate against the French. Church’s force burned settlements in the Acadia region of eastern Canada. New England forces attacked Acadia again in 1707.
In 1709, Massachusetts officials convinced Queen Anne that the French should be expelled from Canada. The queen promised to send warships , and British colonists gathered forces that spring and summer for the invasion. In October, the colonists learned that the promised warships had been sent elsewhere. The invasion plans were scrapped.
British warships and about 400 marines arrived in Boston in July 1710 to prepare an attack on Port-Royal in Acadia. That autumn, the force, strengthened with about 1,500 British colonists, easily captured the fort and town. The British renamed the town Annapolis Royal .
In June 1711, a larger British force—with more than 5,000 soldiers, about 6,000 sailors, and a number of warships—arrived in Boston . Admiral Hovenden Walker commanded the expedition, and Brigadier General John Hill commanded the land forces. More than 1,000 colonial troops joined the fleet in Boston. In addition, about 2,000 colonists and Native Americans advanced overland through New York toward Canada. The two forces planned to drive the French from the cities of Montreal and Quebec. On August 23, however, several British troop transports wrecked on the Saint Lawrence River in poor weather. About 900 of the British were killed, and the invasion plan was canceled.
The end of the war.
The French and British agreed to a truce in 1712. A final peace agreement, the Treaty of Utrecht , was signed in 1713. Under the treaty, Britain gained control of Newfoundland, the Nova Scotia peninsula, the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon , and territory around Hudson Bay.
