The battleground became Canada, and the struggles were fierce. Lake Champlain became a main battleground.

In 1757, the French seized Fort William Henry, at the southern end of the lake. The fort was important because it gave the holder command of the Hudson River and northern New York. It also protected the two other Lake Champlain forts, St. Frederic and Ticonderoga.

French success, however, was short-lived. Looking to turn the tables, the English, under Jeffery Amherst and James Wolfe (their two most successful commanders), seized the island fortress of Louisbourg, on Cape Breton Island, far to the northeast.

In the same year, 1758, British troops captured Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, the main supply center for French forces in the Great Lakes area. French troops were now completely cut off from reinforcements of food, troops, and weapons.

The next year, 1759 brought two momentous events:

• a British victory at Fort Niagara, which completed British domination of the Great Lakes area, and
• a British victory at Quebec, the French headquarters of Canada.

The Battle of Quebec was an epic struggle in itself. The French had thought that they were safe in their fort high on a cliff, surrounded by easily defensible plains and the sea. Instead, British troops had somehow climbed the 300-foot-tall cliffs under cover of night and. French commander the Marquis de Montcalm sent his troops out onto the Plains of Abraham to do battle, and the English troops prevailed.

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