There is a considerable amount of material in this collection created during the King George's War, which preceded and in many ways precipitated the more intense French and Indian War that is the focus of these papers. The King George's War was the North American version of the War of Austrian Succession which raged from 1744 until 1748. It was a prelude to the French and Indian War in that the English colonists were pitted against the French ones and their Indian allies, but the war consisted mainly of border skirmishes. The major expedition, and the one represented in this collection, was the British campaign against the French fort at Louisbourg (now known as Louisburg) on Cape Breton Island. After a forty-nine day siege, the British captured the fort. But with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that ended the War of Austrian Succession, Louisbourg was returned to the French and so it would become a focal point in the French and Indian War of the following decade.

The starting date for the French and Indian War is usually given as 1754, when the French Canadians built Fort Dusquesne on the Ohio River at the present-day site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In response, the Virginia Colony sent George Washington to drive the Canadians out of territory claimed by the English colonists. Washington's mission was unsuccessful, however, and in 1755 both France and Britain sent regiments to support what was still an undeclared colonial war.

During 1755 the area of fighting expanded until it covered ground from Fort Dusquesne to Fort Niagara, Lake Champlain and as far as Nova Scotia. In autumn 1755 tensions rose further when the British captured two French ships, the Lys and the Alcide, off the coast of Nova Scotia. Britain and France finally declared war in May 1756, and so began the Seven Years' War.

The French, under the command of the Marquis de Montcalm, captured and razed Britain's only fort on the Great Lakes: Fort Oswego. The Canadiansand their Indian allies raided towns and farms in New York and Pennsylvania and the English colonists retaliated by doing the same to Indian settlements in the Ohio Valley. The British did their part setting up a blockade of the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island from which point the French guarded the Saint Lawrence River. Meanwhile, at Lake George in New York, the British and their colonists held Fort William Henry throughout the winter of 1756-1757.

But by the latter half of 1757 the outlook was bleak for the British. In August Montcalm returned with a large army and captured and burned Fort William Henry, following which the Indians massacred the British and colonial prisoners. In September the British fleet, blockading Louisbourg and the Saint Lawrence River, was dispersed by a hurricane.

But the tide again turned when William Pitt became Britain's Prime Minister. He increased the number of troops in North America and sent in several strong military leaders. Pitt ordered General James Abercromby to lead forces in attacks against Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga, and to send smaller forces against Fort Frontenac and Fort Duquesne. All of this was supposed to divert attention away from an expedition sailing from England to attack Louisbourg. The British suffered severe casualties at Ticonderoga, but did better at Frontenac and the French deserted Fort Duquesne as General John Forbes's troops approached.

In the summer of 1759, General James Wolfe and his army scaled the cliffs of Canada's political capital, Quebec, and fought Montcalm's forces on the Plains of Abraham. Both Montcalm and Wolfe were killed in the battle, but it was a victory for the British. The Canadian government fled in May 1760 to the unfortified city of Montreal, where General Jeffrey Amherst arranged to have converge three armies. The French Canadians suffered from a lack of supplies and reinforcements caused mostly by the British blockade but in part by the relative apathy of the government in France. On September 8, 1760, Governor de Vaudreuil surrendered Montreal and Canada to Amherst. In the remaining years of the Seven Years' War, there was little military activity in North America.

When the Treaty of Paris was signed on February 8, 1763, Britain was left with all of French Canada, with the exception of two small islands, most of French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, and a small part of Spanish Florida. The French Canadians were allowed to maintain a high degree of autonomy, but the treaty left the British dominant in North America east of the Mississippi River.