Causes
In 1739, hostilities erupted between Spain and Great Britain in what came to be called the War of Jenkins' Ear, a title drawn from an incident eight years earlier in which a Spanish commander cut off the ear of Robert Jenkins, a British merchant captain, and instructed him to present it to his king, George II. This fighting stayed confined to the Caribbean Sea and the friction between Spanish Florida and Georgia, its British neighbor.
A separate struggle, the War of the Austrian Succession, got underway in 1740. On its surface it concerned whether Maria Theresa could rightfully claim the Austrian throne, and initially neither Britain nor Spain took up arms over it. That changed diplomatically for Britain in 1742, when the nation aligned itself with Austria against France and Prussia, though actual combat between these powers waited until 1743, when they clashed at Dettingen.
Britain and France would not officially declare war on one another until March 1744. As for Massachusetts, its declaration of war against Canada and France came later still, on June 2.
Course of the war
Word of the declarations of war arrived first at the French stronghold of Louisbourg, on May 3, 1744, and its garrison lost no time in launching military action. Worried about the overland routes that supplied Quebec, they struck the British fishing settlement at Canso on May 23 and then planned a strike against Annapolis Royal, then serving as the capital of Nova Scotia. However, the departure of French troops from Louisbourg was slow, prompting their Mi'kmaq and Maliseet allies, joined by Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre, to move against Fort Anne on their own initiative in early July.
By that point Annapolis already knew a war had been declared, so the British garrison stood reasonably ready when native warriors laid siege to Fort Anne.
Written by Aubrey Research from King George's War on Wikipedia, cited as a reference and not reproduced.
Where these engagements were fought
All 78 are placed on the map. Select a marker to see the engagement.
Red markers are surveyed battlefields with a mapped boundary; navy markers are point-located engagements. Select a marker to open its page.
Notable engagements
| Engagement | State | Year | Outcome | Forces or losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast Coast campaign (1746) | ME | 1746 | French and Wabanaki Confederacy victory | 9 raids |
| Northeast Coast campaign (1747) | ME | 1747 | French and Wabanaki Confederacy victory | 11 raids |
| Siege of Fort at Number 4 | NH | 1747 | British victory | 10 French troops, 60 Abenaki warriors vs 32 provincial… |
| Saratoga raid | NY | 1745 | French victory | 30 killed; 60-100 taken prisoner |
| Northeast Coast campaign (1745) | ME | 1745 | 11 raids | |
| The Bars Fight at Deerfield | MA | 1746 | 3 killed, boy killed, 1 captured; 2 Indians killed | |
| Siege and capture of Fort Massachusetts | MA | 1746 | 1 killed (Knowlton), 2 wounded; garrison of 22 surrendered | |
| Attack on Upper Ashuelot | NH | 1746 | Bullard and Mrs. McKenny killed; Nathan Blake captured | |
| First raid on Gorhamtown | ME | 1746 | Bryant and children killed; Read and Cloutman captured | |
| Siege of Fort Massachusetts | MA | 1746 | Indian tribes: 1 killed, 16 wounded; Massachusetts: 30… | |
| Defense of Number-Four (Stevens) | NH | 1747 | 2 wounded; none killed | |
| Skirmish at Pennacook | NH | 1747 | 1 man's arm broken |
Plus 66 further documented engagements in the King George's War record.
By state
Engagements and locations are compiled from published sources: Wikipedia (text rewritten and cited as a reference, CC BY-SA 4.0); Sylvester, Indian Wars of New England (1910) (public domain); NPS ABPP survey report (factual data only, cited as a reference).