Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/529

How England became Queen of the Ocean 395 Mediterranean Gibraltar, and Port Mahon on the island of Minorca; in America, France ceded to her the vast region of Canada and Nova Scotia, as well as several of the islands in the West Indies-. The region beyond the Mississippi was ceded to Spain by France, who thus gave up all her claims to North America. In India, France, it is true, 'received back the towns which the English had taken from her, but she had permanently lost her influence over the native rulers, for Clive had made the English name greatly feared among them. III. REVOLT OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES FROM ENGLAND 678. England Victorious in the Struggle in America (nse- 1763). Just before the Seven Years' War came, in 1756, the French and English had begun their struggle in America as well as in India. In America the so-called French and Indian War began in 1754 between the English and French colonists. Sup- ported by money and men from the mother country the English colonists captured the French forts at Ticonderoga and Niagara ; Quebec was won in Wolfe's heroic .attack, 1759; and the next year all Canada submitted to the English. 679. England long left her Colonies very Free. England had, however, no sooner added Canada to her possessions and driven the French from the broad region which lay between her dominions and the Mississippi than she lost the better part of her American empire by the revolt of the irritated colonists, who refused to submit to her interference in their government and commerce. The English settlers had been left alone, for the most part, by the home government and had enjoyed jar greater freedom in the management of their affairs than had the French and Spanish colonists. Virginia established its own assembly in 1619, and Massachusetts became almost an independent commonwealth. Regular constitutions developed, which were later used as the basis for those of the several states when the colonies gained