Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 104, Pitt takes power.

In our last episode, we covered the events that took place in London during 1755 and early 1756.

Newcastle, in order to shore up the support for his ministry in the House of Commons, formed an alliance with Henry Fox

and brought him into the government. Meanwhile, events were transpiring in Europe.

Hanover needed to be protected from French and Prussian attacks now that Austria and the Dutch

couldn't be relied on. After flirting with Russia, Britain and Prussia

signed the Convention of Westminster. They both would unite if a force threatened

Germany, a vague term that included Hanover, but Prussia would not need to join in a colonial war between

Britain and France. This allowed Austria and France, who had been sounding out in

secrets for a while, to come out in the open. In May, 1756, the Convention of Versailles was signed. A very similar agreement in which

France pledged to come to the aid of Austria, if Austria were attacked, but Austria didn't need

to join in a colonial conflict between Britain and France. In London and Paris, both sides believed

they had securely localized to the conflicts to North America, whenever war was formally declared.

Newcastle was quite pleased. What I want to do in this episode is explore how,

in the course of seven months, the situation completely fell apart. By December, 1756, Newcastle's

government would fall. Pitt would return to the ministry. Britain, Prussia, France, Austria,

Spain, Sweden and Russia would be engaged in a European war, and conflict would break out in India.

For this, we're going to stay out of North America. We'll return there next week.

So, how did it all go wrong?

We must begin with the Convention of Westminster.

Once the British and French were convinced that war would not involve Hanover,

the centre of the conflict shifted westward. France considered it a priority to try and match

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