Queen Anne's War

Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), second of the four North American wars fought between the British and French between 1689 and 1763. The wars were the result of the worldwide maritime and colonial rivalry between Great Britain and France and their struggle for predominance on the European and North American continents; each of the wars fought in North America corresponded more or less to a war fought between the same powers in Europe. Queen Anne's War arose from the issues left unresolved at the end of King William's War (1689-1697).

The struggle corresponded to the European War of the Spanish Succession fought between the allied forces of Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire on one side and France and Spain on the other.

The principal events of Queen Anne's War were the capture and burning in 1702 by English colonists of St Augustine, Florida, then a Spanish possession; the capture and burning of Deerfield, Massachusetts, and the massacre of many of the inhabitants of the town in 1704 by French troops and their Native American allies; unsuccessful expeditions in 1704 and 1707 by troops from New England against Port Royal, Acadia (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia); the conquest of Acadia in 1710 by colonists supported by a squadron of British ships and commanded by the British colonial administrator Sir Francis Nicholson; and the failure in 1711 of a large British and colonial joint military and naval expedition against Quebec and Montreal. The war was ended in 1713 by the Peace of Utrecht, which also brought to a close the War of the Spanish Succession. By terms of this treaty the French ceded Acadia to the British, as well as Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay territory. The French retained Cape Breton Island.