Watch Second Hundred Years' War Video

"The Second Hundred Years' War" is a periodization used by some historians to describe the series of military conflicts between the Kingdom of England and France that occurred from about 1689 to 1815. The term appears to have been coined by J. R. Seeley in his influential work "The Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures". Like "The Hundred Years' War", this term does not describe a...  MORE

"The Second Hundred Years' War" is a periodization used by some historians to describe the series of military conflicts between the Kingdom of England and France that occurred from about 1689 to 1815. The term appears to have been coined by J. R. Seeley in his influential work "The Expansion of England: Two Courses of Lectures". Like "The Hundred Years' War", this term does not describe a single military event but a persistent general state of war between the two primary belligerents. The use of the phrase as an overarching category indicates the interrelation of all the wars as components of the rivalry between France and Britain for world power. It was a war between and over the future of each state's colonial empires. The various wars between the two states during the 18th century usually involved other European countries in large alliances; except for the "War of the Quadruple Alliance" when they were bound by the Anglo-French Alliance, France and Britain always opposed one another. Some of the wars, such as the "The Seven Years' War", have been considered world wars and included battles in the growing colonies in India, the Americas, and ocean shipping routes around the globe. LESS