Stan, cancel everything and get me on the phone with the Discovery Channel! One last thing about wars, they are expensive. In 1756, the British national debt was 75 million pounds. In 1763, it was 133 million pounds. Someone had to pay for this, and the British felt it was only fair that the American colonists should foot the bill. Those taxes, which helped fuel the American Revolution, were a direct result of the Seven Years' War. So in one way, winning the Seven Years' War cost Britain its first empire.