Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) was the North American scene of the War of Spanish Succession, also known as the British colonials, the second in a series of French and Indian wars fought between France, England, and Great Britain in North America for control of the continent. The reign of Queen Anne I, of Great Britain took place in Europe at the same time as the war for the Spanish succession that was waged after the death of King Charles II of Spain to prevent the unification of the French and Spanish thrones. The war was fought between 1702 and 1713 between the thirteen American colonies that controlled the North American continent.
During the 11-year war that took place, British and French colonial troops and their Indian allies raided a number of border settlements and tried to capture them. In the south, the English Navy captured the Caribbean island of St. Christopher in the summer of 1702 by the French; Spanish and Apalachee Indians attacked Creek Indians in Georgia at the Battle of the Flint River in October 1702; and soldiers from the Carolina Province attacked and captured the city of St. Augustine, Florida in November 1702 after failing to capture the Spanish fortress of Castillo de San Marcos. The Spaniards in Florida and the English in the Carolinas were under mutual attack, while the English were engaged in a mobile proxy war with allies on the Indian side.
The hostility on the southern scene of the Queen Anne’s War was underscored by the British capture of the town of Saint Augustine in Florida, Spain, in the autumn of 1703 and the failed French and Spanish attacks on Charleston, South Carolina, in 1706. After a brief period of peace, the colonists faced a long and murderous war. The character of the war was similar to that that preceded it, the competition for Acadia with New France which consisted of surprises and bloody massacres.
The English colonists of New England fought against French and Indian troops stationed in Acadia, France. In 1704, the French and their Indian allies attacked the British colony of Deerfield, Massachusetts, where an estimated 112 were captured and 50 killed. The English settlers retaliated by attacking French settlements and their own Indian allies the Mohawks in a series of small raids that raged for years.
The English colonies of New England fought against French and Indian troops stationed in Acadia and Canada. As for the southern scene of the Queen Anne’s war, the English seized the island of St. Christopher in 1702 from Admiral Benbow in the battle against a French squadron, while the Spanish main scene was incomplete. The third attack was successful, and the port of Royal Surrender was named in honor of the English Queen, and Acadia was named Nova Scotia.
The nations were tired of war, and the Treaty of Utrecht was the consequence. Under the treaty negotiated by the Tory government, France agreed to never unify the Crown of France and Spain, and Britain from Spain acquired Hudson Bay, Acadia, Newfoundland, French Gibraltar, and Menorca as well as new trade privileges for Spain and a monopoly on slave trade within the Spanish Empire. According to this treaty, Acadia, Newfoundland, and Hudson Bay belonged to the territories ceded by France to England, and all five nations were recognized as British subjects.
After the war over the Spanish succession, England, New France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic signed the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713-1715 and signed a number of different peace agreements with different European countries. This treaty established the borders of Acadia and marked the borders of the British colony of Canada.
When news of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), or Queen Anne’s War as it was known in North America) arrived in 1702, few were aware that the resumption of the King-Williams War (1689-1697), which had swept eastern North America from Newfoundland to Florida, would pit the Spanish, English, and French colonies against their native allies in a concerted battle for control of the continent. Among the fundamental issues were the rivalries in America between France and England, a conflict that remained unresolved by the Treaty of Ryswick of 1697. This conflict was interrupted by the adoption of a Spanish throne by the grandsons of King Louis XIV of France in November 1700. This made a real threat to Bourbon hegemony in Europe and America a combination of French and Spanish power.
England’s Great Alliance with Holland, the Habsburg Empire, Hanover, and Prussia was to prevent French domination in Europe and opposed France, Spain, Bavaria, and Savoy. Tensions continued between France and Britain along the Acadia’s border. The war had become a political football game between the Whig and the Tory aristocracy, with taxes paid for everything, with Queen Anne in the middle.