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In the decades prior to the Revolutionary War, tensions arose between the two largest global powers: BRITAIN, led by King George II, and FRANCE, led by King Louis XV. Because of their alliances with other nations, fighting escalated into the first global war -- the Seven Years War, or as it was called in America, the French and Indian War. The conflict included every major power in Europe as well as their colonies from the Caribbean, to India, to the Philippines, and to Africa. Over a million died. It was sparked by the ambush in 1754 of a French detachment...

The human cost of the War of 1812 was dramatic. Some 35,000 people were killed, wounded or missing at the end of the war. York (now Toronto), Niagara (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Washington, D.C. were torched. Elsewhere, homes and properties were looted and damaged and family lives were thrown into chaos. The borders between British North America and the United States might not have changed when the fighting stopped — the old lines were reconfirmed in the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war on December 24, 1814. But once the treaty was signed, there wasn’t simply a return to the...

Associated Press Re-enactors fire their muskets at British soldiers near Fort Ticonderoga. There are as many as 3,000 French and Indian War re-enactors in the United States and another 800 in Canada. Welcome to 2005: the Year of the French and Indian War. Actually? Make that years, plural. The celebration is continuing through 2010. It seems that New York would like to be known as the French and Indian War State, since it will serve as host of a national, and international, five-year-long commemoration of the many battles that took place within its borders. Just exactly why are we...