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The world of 1748 balanced precariously on the edge of chaos. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had technically ended the War of Austrian Succession, but as we explore in this first episode, it was less a peace treaty and more "like cramming eight angry cats into a sack, tying it shut and walking away." From this uneasy truce would emerge the Seven Years' War—a conflict Winston Churchill would later dub "the First World War."

We journey across the chess board of 18th-century power politics to understand the key players and their motivations. In Britain, King George II dozes through royal functions while his ministers fret over colonial taxation and French encroachment. Across the Channel, Louis XV's France maintains its glittering facade despite crumbling finances and colonial vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Maria Theresa of Austria rebuilds her empire with one eye fixed on reclaiming Silesia from Frederick the Great—Prussia's flute-playing philosopher king with an army that punches far above its weight.

The drama extends eastward to Russia, where Empress Elizabeth hosts lavish masquerades while assembling Europe's largest army, and southward to Spain and Portugal, where faded glory meets strategic importance. Each power nurtures grievances and ambitions that make conflict inevitable. And at the center of this brewing storm stands a tall, ambitious 21-year-old Virginian named George Washington, about to "blunder into the history books" and inadvertently spark a global conflagration.

This episode sets the stage for our journey through one of history's most consequential conflicts—a war fought across five continents that would redraw the map of empires and plant the seeds for revolutions to come. Subscribe now to follow the entire dramatic story of the Seven Years' War and discover how this 18th-century struggle shaped our modern world.