King William's War

King William's War
Part of the Nine Years' War
Count Frontenac, governor of New France, refused English demands to surrender during the Battle of Quebec (1690).
Date 1688 – 1697 Location North America Result Treaty of Ryswick Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
France  New France  Wabanaki Confederacy	England Massachusetts Bay Colony English America Iroquois Confederacy
Commanders and leaders
Count Frontenac Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville Claude-Sébastien de Villieu Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière Father Louis-Pierre Thury Father Sébastien Rale Father Jean Baudoin Chief Madockawando	Sir William Phips Benjamin Church Pieter Schuyler

King William's War (1688–97, also known as the Second Indian War,Father Baudoin's War,Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–97, also known as the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg). It was the first of six colonial wars (see the four French and Indian Wars, Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War) fought between New France and New England along with their respective Native allies before France ceded its remaining mainland territories in North America east of the Mississippi River in 1763.

For King William's War, neither England nor France thought of weakening their position in Europe to support the war effort in North America. New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy were able to thwart New England expansion into Acadia, whose border New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine. According to the terms of the Treaty of Ryswick, the boundaries and outposts of New France, New England, and New York remained substantially unchanged.

The English settlers were more than 154,000 at the beginning of the war, outnumbering the French 12 to 1. However, they were divided in multiple colonies, along the Atlantic coast, which were unable to cooperate efficiently and they were engulfed in the Glorious Revolution creating tension among the colonists. In addition, the English lacked military leadership and had a difficult relationship with their Iroquois allies.

New France was divided in three entities: Acadia on the Atlantic coast; Canada along the Saint Lawrence River and up to the Great Lakes; and Louisiana from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, along the Mississippi River. The French population amounted to 14,000 in 1689. Although the French were vastly outnumbered, they were more politically unified and contained a disproportionate number of adult males with military backgrounds. Realizing their numerical inferiority, they developed good relationships with the Indigenous people in order to multiply their forces and made effective use of hit-and-run tactics.

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