After the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, England began pursuing a policy of colonization in North America. Unlike the Spanish, who went to the western hemisphere primarily for conquest and riches, the English went to North America mainly to escape poverty or religious persecution at home. The English colonies along the eastern coast of North America grew slowly, but were strong enough to divert most potential rivals. The French therefore went to the remaining open region of North America, Canada. There the only profitable resource was furs. Unlike the Spanish or the English, whose attitudes toward the American Indian population were cavalier at best, the French saw the Indians as partners since no one knew more about trapping animals and preparing furs. The French went to Canada in much smaller numbers than had the Spanish or English and, by seeking friendship and adapting to the Indian way of life, built a solid relationship with the Indians.

The French gradually worked their way deeper into Canada, establishing trading posts and forts. Certainly they claimed the land for their king, but they did not let that get in the way of amicable relations with the Indians. In the mid-1500s the French explorer Sieur de la Salle floated down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. He then claimed the river he had just traveled and all the land drained by it-everything from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rockies. This conflicted with the Spanish and English claims, but as the three powers had no inhabitants in this region it did not really matter. Not until 1752.

English colonists began to tentatively probe west of the mountains. They soon ran into French forts in key places. The French built Fort Duquesne where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers join to form the Ohio, at the upper northeastern limit of la Salle's claim. Colonial attempts to recapture the fort proved fruitless. Responding to an appeal by prominent colonist Benjamin Franklin, the government in London sent troops. The first expedition under Major General Edward Braddock was a colossal failure and encouraged the French and their Indian allies to greater activity along the frontier. This coincided with increasing French and English tensions in Europe. Braddock's defeat in July 1755 signaled the beginning of what came to be called the French and Indian War in North America; the European counterpart, the Seven Years War, started the following year.

For a time the French maintained the upper hand in North America, but that began to change with William Pitt's accession to power in London. Pitt realized the financial value of colonies for both imports and exports, and he was not about to lose any possession to arch-rival France without a struggle. Pitt sent more troops to North America while allowing Frederick the Great's Prussia to handle the bulk of the continental fighting. The Royal Navy curtailed French reinforcements, but to securely lock up Canada the key was the town of Quebec.

Pitt planned a four-pronged attack into Canada, via Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, and up the St. Lawrence River. The French lost the key harbor of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, guardian of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It was from there that the attack up the St. Lawrence River commenced. Leading some 9,000 British soldiers (and a handful of American rangers) was Major General James Wolfe, a young man who had served in the War of the Spanish Succession with some distinction and had led successful raids along the French coast. Two men opposed him inside Quebec: military commander Major General Louis-Joseph, the marquis de Montcalm, and governor and commander-in-chief Marquis de Vaudreuil. Montcalm commanded the French troops, Vaudreuil the Canadian militia and colonial regulars, together numbering about 12,000 men. Vaudreuil was in overall command, but had no military experience. Montcalm was recognized as an outstanding general in France and Canada. Because the two men openly despised each other, this meant there would be little cooperation within the French command as the British approached.

Quebec city is located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River on a promontory created by that river and its tributary, the St. Charles. The city sits high on a bluff overlooking the river junction, and bluffs run along the shore downstream in an east-northeasterly direction. Where the two rivers converge the estuary to the Atlantic begins, but immediately upstream the river becomes impassable to seagoing ships. The only practicable approach to the city is from the west along the north shore across the Plains of Abraham, but it seemed impossible for the British to position themselves to launch an attack from that quarter. Artillery on the southern bank can bombard the city, but both French commanders regarded their forces as insufficient to spare any to hold that position. Besides, winter was approaching and that would force the British fleet and army away. Everything seemed positive, but for one mistaken assumption: that the river upstream from Quebec was unpassable to British shipping.

The earliest British contingents arrived in mid-June 1759; Wolfe made his appearance at the end of the month. He occupied the southern bank of the St. Lawrence as well as the Isle of Orleans just downstream for his main base. British artillery began firing on the city, but it was more demoralizing than damaging. On the night of 28 June the French set a number of boats afire to float with the current into the British fleet, but they proved of little use. Wolfe considered and discarded a variety of plans after observing the strength of the French defenses atop the bluffs. At the end of July he ordered a lower redoubt seized, hoping to bring the French out of their defenses to recapture it, but poor coordination and weather doomed the operation. Throughout August American ranger forces destroyed area farmhouses and crops, hoping to harm French morale. This had little effect other than to give the Americans some satisfaction for years of similar treatment from French-allied Indian tribes.

In August the Royal Navy discovered it was possible to slip ships past Quebec's weak shore batteries and through the "unpassable" narrows. When Wolfe polled his officers for operational suggestions, a crossing above Quebec onto the Plains of Abraham was the consensus, to which he agreed on 1 September. If nothing else this would place British forces astride Quebec's line of communications to Montreal. Harassing attacks downstream kept Montcalm's attention focused in that direction.

For a week prior to the assault the British stood idle, lulling the French. On the night of 12-13 September French pickets along the endangered shore were told of an approaching supply convoy coming from Montreal. They did not, however, learn of its cancellation. When British boats began plying the river the French were not unduly alarmed. A French-speaking British officer kept the defending pickets off guard until the last moment, by which time the British were streaming up a narrow path to the top of the bluffs. A diversionary bombardment downstream continued to keep French attention in that direction. When Montcalm learned of the successful landing the next morning, the British forces were already forming up and facing Quebec's poorly maintained walls.

Montcalm should have waited for troops to come up from the down-river defenses to supplement the garrison in the city. Instead, he marched out of the city with a roughly equal force (4,500 French to 4,441 British), although only about half were regular troops and the rest militia. The first French fighters on the scene were Canadian militia and some Indians, who acted as skirmishers and laid down harassing fire. Wolfe's troops lay prone to avoid this. When Montcalm had his men form up in mid-morning, he ordered them to advance. The militia fired at too great a range to do any harm, while the British continued to lie prone and hold their fire. As the French line moved forward it lost cohesion. The militia fired, then knelt to present a lower target as they reloaded. The regulars fired in volleys, reloaded, and then marched forward. The two different styles meant that the mixed forces found themselves drifting apart before they got into British musket range. When the French reached 60 yards the British stood and fired by volleys, keeping up a steady fire. At 40 yards, the British line took ten steps forward and fired a volley that shredded the French lines. They broke. The entire fight had taken no more than half an hour.

Tragedy struck both sides during the battle. Wolfe was hit by sniper fire in the wrist, then in the abdomen, then in the chest. He died on the field. Not long afterward Montcalm was hit, probably by grapeshot from the two cannon the British had manhandled up the bluffs. He survived until the early hours of the following morning. The troops that manned the defenses along the downstream bluffs soon began to arrive in the city but did not stay. Governor Vaudreuil abandoned the city on 15 September, soon after Montcalm's death. The British under George Townshend entered the city and accepted its surrender on the 18th.

The capture of Quebec for all intents and purposes gave Canada to the British, since it controlled the only access route into the country. The French had not been able to reinforce seriously since the beginning of the war owing to the presence of the Royal Navy. Now they had no way to support their few remaining troops. Although the French commander of the garrison at Montreal marched on Quebec the following spring and beat Townshend's force that marched out to face him, the British had improved the walls and these proved strong enough to allow them to hold on until reinforced. Montreal fell to British forces in 1760, and fighting in North America ceased.

War continued in Europe for another three years until finally ended by the Treaty of Paris of 1763. The treaty forced the French surrender of all their lands east of the Mississippi River and north of the Great Lakes. The remainder of their claims west of the Mississippi they ceded to Spain. Thus, the loss of Canada ended France's hope for a western hemisphere empire.