There are those who win; there are those who lose. But for those in the old regime who decided whether or not to take this gamble, the possibility of winning made this risk was attractive. The Seven Years" War was about the control and supremacy of territory: Germany, North America, and India. The war was fought to decide the superiority of power in Europe. The underlying reason was as to which country would dominate in the colonial field. It created an unstable shift in Europe's alliance system and balance of power. Moreover the first shots were fired not on a European, but an American frontier. The war was an episode in the European politics of that time, and a continuation of the Austrian war of succession. Because this war lasted for seven years from 1756 to 1763, it is called as the Seven Years' War.
The Seven Years' War, the European counterpart to the French and Indian War (1754-1763), began officially between France and England on May 15, 1756, when the latter made a formal declaration of war. Actually, fighting had been going on in America for two years and that was called the French and Indian War. The fighting that was occurring halfway across the world in India was called the Third Carnatic War. The Seven Years" War involved all the major European powers and was world like in scope, but to the colonists it was a struggle against the French for control of North America. It was the last major conflict before the French Revolution to involve all the great powers of Europe. Generally, France, Austria, Saxony, Sweden, and Russia were aligned on one side against Prussia, Hanover, and Great Britain on the other. The war arose out of the attempt of the Austrian Habsburgs to win back the rich province of Silesia, which had been wrested from them by Frederick II the Great of Prussia during the War of the Austrian Succession. But the Seven Years' War also involved overseas colonial struggles between Great Britain and France, the main points of conflict between these two traditional rivals being the struggle for control of North America and India.
