After a year of defeats to the French, change was needed in England. One leader who embraced a new approach was Lord Chatham, William Pitt, the Elder. As Secretary of State, Pitt saw the fight against France as a far bigger project than just land disputes in America. His aim was to stretch the French thin across the globe and isolate their forces far and wide. What began with young George Washington’s claims in the Ohio Valley was now William Pitt’s creation of the first world-wide-war - fought in different theaters across five continents, between dozens of loosely-linked belligerent nation-states. France and her European alliances against Britain and hers, with colonial proxies and native allies on both sides. On May 17, 1756, Parliament declared war on King Louis XV’s France, and thus began the Seven Years War.
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