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'Twist of history'

Two drummers dressed in 18th-century French military uniforms pounded out a cadence to get the attention of the guests at the French ambassador's elegant mansion as Ambassador Jean-David Levitte stood on the steps of the sweeping staircase and urged them to gather around.

"Step closer. No one will get shot. That war is over," he said.

Mr. Levitte was referring to what Americans call the French and Indian War, Europeans call the Seven Years War, French-Canadians call the War of the Conquest, India calls the Third Carnatic War and former British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill called the first world war.

Whatever its title, the conflict between 1754 and 1763 changed world history, as France lost control over its colonies in North America and elsewhere and Britain solidified its status as the 18th-century superpower.

The war started when George Washington, then a 21-year-old lieutenant colonel, led a force from the Virginia militia toward present-day Pittsburgh and attacked a French encampment. Within two years, all the major European powers were engaged on one side or the other. Britain officially declared war on France in 1756.

Prussia and Hanover allied with Britain, while Austria, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Saxony sided with France. In addition to North America and Europe, battles were fought in the Caribbean, coastal Africa, India and the Philippines.

However, Mr. Levitte this week was concerned with only one battle, the French victory in July 1758 when 4,000 French soldiers defending the strategic Fort Ticonderoga, which France called Fort Carillon, defeated a British force of 16,000.

"It was a very special period in American history and in French history," he said. "It was a terrible but fascinating time. ... But unfortunately, it marked the beginning of the end of the French empire in North America."

Mr. Levitte hosted the president of the Fort Ticonderoga Board of Trustees, Deborah Clarke Mars, who described efforts to restore the privately owned historical site in upstate New York, and Scott Stephenson, curator of the French and Indian War exhibition, "Clash of Empires," at the Smithsonian Institution's S. Dillon Ripley Center.