With Europe's major powers having settled their differences, Voltaire, Montesquieu and some other intellectuals became optimistic about the nations of Europe getting along with each other. In 1751, Voltaire described Europe (excluding that controlled by the Ottoman Turks) as "a sort of great republic." The kingdoms of Europe, he wrote, had "the same principles of public and political law unknown in other parts of the world" and were bent on "maintaining among themselves as far as possible an equal balance of power."
If there was a balance of power in Europe it was not an effective instrument in maintaining peace. War was still not dreaded enough to adequately motivate compromise and harmony. Military action was still viewed more than economic development as a means to well-being. In European civilization there was still no international law to which all the powers felt obliged to adhere. And not all powers would endure in taking seriously the recent agreements that ended the last great war.
Among the British, more war with the French seemed likely over their differences in the Americas. The British had taken control of a portion of France's colony in North America in 1710 (during the Queen Anne War of 1802-13), and they had renamed the area they had conquered Nova Scotia.
Renewed conflict between Britain and France erupted in the Ohio Valley in 1754 -- to be known as the French and Indian War. In early 1755, troops left Britain and crossed the Atlantic. In late April, troops from France embarked for the Americas, and in early June the British attacked the French ships carrying these troops. It had been seven years since the British public was tired of war, but now they were again eager for war against the French.
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