OCTOBER 22–25, 2009 • NIAGARA UNIVERSITY AND BROCK UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION

With nearly one million battlefield deaths and fighting on four continents and in three oceans, the Seven Years’ War stands as the first world war. Hence, Contest for Continents: The Seven Years’ War in Global Perspective aims to address the conflict as one that transcended the national and imperial categories that have traditionally been used to evaluate it. The object of the conference is to study the war both globally, involving North America, South Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Philippines, and in transnational perspective, including its military, diplomatic, political, cultural, economic, and social aspects. Crossing disciplinary as well as national and imperial boundaries, the presentations by distinguished scholars from around the world encompass a variety of disciplines and scholarly approaches and consider a range of topics such as military history, trade interests (or the lack thereof), resource mobilization, the economics of navies, the varying costs of the struggle for combatant states, center-periphery relations, representations of the overseas “other,” the war’s long-term consequences, and its effect on popular memory as seen in literature, material objects, and commemorative ceremonies.

The Program Committee includes Fred Anderson (University of Colorado, Boulder), Paul Bushkovitch (Yale University), Thomas A. Chambers (Niagara University), Jonathan Dull (Yale University), John Elliott (University of Oxford), Ronald Hoffman (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture), Elizabeth Mancke (University of Akron), Paul W. Mapp (College of William and Mary), P. J. Marshall (King’s College London, emeritus), David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye (Brock University), and Fredrika J. Teute (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture).

The organizers of this meeting—the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Niagara University, and Brock University—express their deep appreciation to the generous donors who joined them in making the conference possible. Special thanks go to:

• 
• The New York State French and Indian War
• New York State Senator George M. Maziarz, 62nd District
• Brock University History Department
• Brock University Humanities Research Institute
• Brock University Faculty of Social Sciences
• Niagara University Operating Funds

We are also grateful to Old Fort Niagara and its director Bob Emerson for their warm hospitality and gracious cooperation.