ABSTRACT

Benjamin Franklin need only have turned to eighteenth-century Europe for proof of his statement. Yet the American colonies neither joined nor died during the great mid-century wars which finally eliminated the French menace. The Louisbourg campaign was a total fiasco and few of the men returned, but it set a precedent which held throughout the mid-century wars: Massachusetts raised most of its forces through bounties and the inducement of receiving military pay, room, and board. Warfare also helped to relieve the monetary crisis. Most of the leading political figures between 1713 and 1740 belonged to an extended kinship network, centred on Boston, which embraced the first families of Massachusetts. The nature of political conflict in peacetime Massachusetts must be defined if the changes produced by war are to be fully appreciated. However, the peculiar manner in which the war ended led to increased political strife, both within Massachusetts and between Massachusetts and Britain, after hostilites were concluded.