1755 - Political Events

Political Events

Corsican patriot Pasquale Paoli, 30, returns from exile and overcomes the Genoese faction that has controlled the island for decades. He is elected to executive office under a constitution that is more democratic than any other in Europe and will rule the island until 1764, fighting first Genoa and then Genoa's French allies, building up a Navy, using enlightened despotism to substitute order and justice for the traditional system of vendetta, encouraging mining, and instituting national schools and a university (see 1768).

The Royal Navy sends a small fleet under the command of Admiral John Byng, 51, to prevent French forces from taking the island of Minorca in the western Mediterranean. He finds himself outnumbered, breaks off an engagement with a superior French fleet, returns to Gibraltar, and is condemned for cowardice. Prime Minister Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st duke of Newcastle, says of Byng, "He shall be tried immediately; he shall be hung directly" (see 1757).

Vice Admiral Edward Boscawen, Royal Navy, intercepts a French squadron en route to North America in April, captures the 64-gun ships Alcide and Lys, returns to Spithead with his prizes and 1,500 prisoners, and receives the thanks of Parliament.

General Edward Braddock, 59, lands at Hampton Roads, Virginia, February 20, with two regiments of regulars to assume command as commander in chief of British forces in America. A bluff and profane major general, Braddock meets with colonial governors April 14 at Alexandria to plan a fourfold attack on French positions in Nova Scotia, at Fort Duquesne on the Monongahela River, at Crown Point on Lake George, and at Niagara.

Fort Beauséjour surrenders June 16 to a force of 270 British regulars and nearly 2,000 New Englanders under the command of Colonel Robert Monckton, 28, after a fortnight of resistance on the neck of the Acadian peninsula linking Louisburg with French Canada (but see 1758). The British reward Monckton's "zeal and ability" by making him lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia: some 6,000 Acadians who refuse to swear allegiance to George II are sent to Georgia and South Carolina with instructions from the British governor that they are to be "disposed of in such manner as may best answer our design of preventing their reunion." The property of the 9,000 remaining Acadians is for the most part confiscated, and Canada's new masters deport some 10,000 French-speaking Roman Catholics.

The Battle of the Monongahela River seven miles from Fort Duquesne July 9 ends in defeat for a British force of 1,459 regulars and 450 colonials who have marched from Fort Cumberland in northwest Maryland under the command of General Braddock (see 1754). French and Indian forces led by Captain Daniel de Beaujeu engage the enemy. Beaujeu is killed, Captain Jean Dumas takes over, and he routs the British regulars, who are unaccustomed to anything but European methods of fighting in formation and whose colonial allies are in many cases raw recruits. Nearly 1,000 British and colonial troops are killed or wounded, as are 60 French and Indians; George Washington survives the encounter, but General Braddock sustains mortal wounds, and he dies 4 days later (July 13) at age 60. In addition to George Washington, his 44th Regiment includes notably English-born officers Thomas Gage, 36; Horatio Gates, 27; and Charles Lee, 24, all of whom will gain prominence in years to come (Lee will be sent next year to New York's Mohawk Valley, where he will buy a captaincy for £900). Colonel Thomas Dunbar withdraws to Fort Cumberland with the remainder of Braddock's command.

The Battle of Lake George September 8 ends in defeat for the French, but the British under Sir William Johnson fail to reach Crown Point. Sir William erects Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George. An expedition to Niagara reaches Oswego under the command of the Massachusetts colony's governor William Shirley; he leaves a garrison of 700 but does not proceed (see 1756).

Ethiopia's Solomonid emperor dies and is succeeded by his son, who will reign until 1769 as the emperor Iyoas.