The First British Isolation
(1903 Calcutta)
Following the War of Austrian Succession the Austrian-British relations became chilled, as the Austrians felt that the British had not supplied enough aid. The resulting poor relations caused the Anglo-Austrian alliance to collapse. The Austrians wished to form an alliance with France in place of Britain, however the French had a strong anti-Austrian stance[1], and also preferred having Prussia as a junior partner in place of Austria which would demand an equal power. The British began to panic and tried to find a continental ally, but faced a serious impediment in that both Austria and France wished to prevent their success.
The French strengthened their grip over Prussia with a lucrative trade deal in the New World, while Denmark and Sweden remained strongly neutral. Austria was able to gain Russia's support in 1757 for an invasion of Silesia, which began the European theatre of the First World War, though it was of minimal consequence to isolated Britain. War had already broken out in the Americas when a small army of British soldiers made a failed attack on a french fortress, with only a small number escaping[2]. The Franco-British part of the conflict had began in 1755, and as Britain had no continental allies the French felt safe in sending significant armies to back up both New France and India, where they enjoyed the benefits of their victory during the Second Carnatic war.
It was clear that fighting alone against France would be difficult, especially with the new fleet that the French had built for what Louis XVI said would be a "War that reaches every corner of the World", which is obviously where the term World War came from. Unfortunately for the French their new armies in India were limited by disease, and they had trouble supplying so many soldiers in the Americas. The French also began to regret their decision to concentrate on the colonies when Austria and Russia attacked their Prussian allies. While they could supply some troops under Maurice de Saxe [3], they were able to supply some funds to aid Prussia.
The war started out badly for the British, then turned out poorly for the French and Prussians. It was the Prussians, though, who managed to by enough time for France to ready more soldiers, by defeating a larger Austrian army under Charles of Lorraine at the Battle of Breslau, where Frederick the Great led 38 000 men against the Austrian army of 78 000. The ingenious victory weakened the enemy morale, while helping the French gain a clear advance deeper in to the Holy Roman Empire. During late 1758 the French managed to surprise the British with an invasion of Minorca, and took control of much of the Mediterranean. The French fleet was badly damaged in the assault though and was forced to dock for repairs.
In the colonies things were not going so well for either side. The French armies under Montcalm, while dangerous and better trained than American militia were none the less outnumbered. This meant that almost every major battle was a French victory, but that the British were able to capture numerous under defended fortresses. Then James Abercrombie made a major mistake that many say lost the war. He decided to assemble the vast bulk of the Colonial Army and Militia for an assault on Quebec city, only barely convincing the other major general. Through his native allies Montcalm learned of this and sent his own Forces to block the British army. The British force of nearly 35 000 was ordered to attack the city by following a route up the riverside hills that was discovered watching a laundry woman. upon reaching the top the British army was met with the unpleasant surprise of Moncalm and his 10 000 disciplined troops on the Field of Abraham. The damage of the battle was exceptional. The French lost only 1 500 men, while the bewildered British lost nearly 7 000, with nearly 4 000 more to wounded to participate in the rest of the war[4]. The retreating army was also plagued by assaults by the Native allies of the French.
Hearing of this devastiting defeat the British sent a large number of reinforcements from Britain to try and revenge the loss. After all what were soldiers in Britain for but being sent to colonies that were in danger, it was not as if anyone would be able to get past the Royal Navy. While in hind sight we know just how British overconfidence swayed the course of many things, at the time it seemed like an entirely reasonable plan.
[1]as per OTL until Madame de Pompadour
[2]George Washington was one of those not able to escape
[3]De Saxe did not die of the disease or wound that killed him in OTL
[4]Several sources have contributed this victory more to Moncalm's assistant Francis de Gaston
"We are currently increasing research outside of Europe, India will likely be the focus of our next update."