Queen Anne's War - Background

Background

In 1701, following the death in late 1700 of King Charles II of Spain, war broke out over who should succeed him to the Spanish throne. Although the war was at first restricted to a few powers in Europe, in May 1702 it widened when England declared war on Spain and France. The hostilities in North America were further encouraged by existing frictions along the frontier areas separating the colonies of these powers. This disharmony was most pronounced along the northern and southwestern frontiers of the English colonies, which then stretched from the Province of Carolina in the south to the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the north, with additional colonial settlements or trading outposts on Newfoundland and at Hudson Bay.

The total population of the English colonies at the time has been estimated at 250,000, with Virginia and New England dominating. The population centers of these colonies were concentrated along the coast, with small settlements inland, sometimes reaching as far as the Appalachian Mountains. Most Europeans colonists knew very little of the interior of the continent, to the west of the Appalachians and south of the Great Lakes. This area was dominated by native tribes, although French and English traders had penetrated the area. Spanish missionaries in La Florida had established a network of missions to convert the indigenous inhabitants to Roman Catholicism. The Spanish population was relatively small (about 1,500), and the Indian population they ministered to has been estimated to number 20,000. French explorers had located the mouth of the Mississippi River, near which they established a small colonial presence in 1699 at Fort Maurepas (near present-day Biloxi, Mississippi). From there they began to establish trade routes into the interior, establishing friendly relations with the Choctaw, a large tribe whose natural enemies included the British-allied Chickasaw. All of these populations had suffered to some degree from the introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases like smallpox by early explorers and traders.

The arrival of the French in the South threatened existing trade links that Carolina colonists had established into the interior, and Spanish territorial claims, creating tension among all three powers. France and Spain, allies in this conflict, had been on opposite sides of the recently ended Nine Years' War. Conflicting territorial claims between Carolina and Florida south of the Savannah River were overlaid by animosity over religious divisions between the Roman Catholic Spanish and the Protestant English along the coast.

To the north, the conflict held a strong economic component in addition to territorial disputes. Newfoundland was the site of a British colony based at St. John's, and the French colonial base was at Plaisance, with both sides also holding a number of smaller permanent settlements. The island also had many seasonal settlements used by fishermen from Europe. These colonists, numbering fewer than 2,000 English and 1,000 French permanent settlers (and many more seasonal visitors), competed with one another for the fisheries of the Grand Banks, which were also used by fishermen from Acadia (then encompassing all of present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) and Massachusetts.

The border area between Acadia and New England remained uncertain despite battles along the border throughout King William's War. New France defined the border of Acadia as the Kennebec River in southern Maine. There were Catholic missions at Norridgewock and Penobscot and a French settlement in Penobscot Bay near the site of modern Castine, Maine, which had all been bases for attacks on New England settlers migrating toward Acadia during King William's War. The frontier areas between the Saint Lawrence River and the primarily coastal settlements of Massachusetts and New York were still dominated by natives (primarily Abenaki and Iroquois), and the Hudson River–Lake Champlain corridor had also been used for raiding expeditions in both directions in earlier conflicts. Although the Indian threat had receded somewhat due to reductions in the native population as a result of disease and the last war, they were still seen to pose a potent threat to outlying settlements.

The Hudson Bay territories (known to the English as Prince Rupert's Land) were not significantly fought over in this war. Although they had been a scene of much dispute by competing French and English companies starting in the 1680s, the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick left France in control of all but one outpost on the bay. The only incident of note was a French attack on that outpost, Fort Albany, in 1709. The Hudson's Bay Company, unhappy that Ryswick had not returned its territories, successfully lobbied for the return of its territories in the negotiations that ended this war.