<P> In 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four - way attack on the French . None succeeded, and the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster; he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755 and died a few days later . British operations failed in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York during 1755--57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies . In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, and they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians (1755--64) soon afterwards . Orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander - in - Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain . The Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty . Indians likewise were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England . </P> <P> The British colonial government fell in the region of modern Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry; this last was followed by Indians torturing and massacring their British victims . William Pitt came to power and significantly increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theater of the war . Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada (part of New France). They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec (1759). The British later lost the Battle of Sainte - Foy west of Quebec (1760), but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1763). </P> <P> The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo - French conflict . France ceded to Great Britain its territory east of the Mississippi . It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River (including New Orleans) to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Florida . (Spain had ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba .) France's colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britain's position as the dominant colonial power in eastern North America . </P> <P> The conflict is known by multiple names . In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War . There had already been a King George's War in the 1740s during the reign of King George II, so British colonists named this conflict after their opponents, and it became known as the French and Indian War . This traditional name continues as the standard in the United States, but it obscures the fact that Indians fought on both sides of the conflict and that this was part of the Seven Years' War, a much larger conflict between France and Great Britain . American historians generally use the traditional name or sometimes the Seven Years' War . Less frequently used names for the war include the Fourth Intercolonial War and the Great War for the Empire . </P>

Which events marked the defeat of france in north america