In 1763, victory in the Seven Years' War led to the dominance of the British Empire, which was to become the foremost global power for over a century, slowly growing to become the largest empire in history. From the mid-1750s, Great Britain came to dominate the Indian subcontinent through the trading and military expansion of the East India Company in colonial India, at the expense of other colonial powers and the Mughal Empire and Maratha Empire. In wars against the Kingdom of France, it gained control of both Upper and Lower Canada, and until suffering defeat in the American War of Independence, it also had dominion over the Thirteen Colonies. From 1787, Britain began the colonisation of New South Wales with the departure of the First Fleet in the process of penal transportation to Australia. After the French Revolution, Britain was a major belligerent in the French Revolutionary Wars.