Montgomerie is replaced in 1761 by James…

China’s Qianlong emperor issues a 1761 edict outlawing secret societies.

Some of the Yenisei Kyrgyz had been relocated into the Dzungar Khanate by the Dzungars.

In 1761, after the Dzungars are defeated by the Qing, some Öelet, a tribe of Oirat-speaking Dzungars, are deported to the Nen River basin in Northeastern China (Manchuria), and a group of Yenisei Kyrgyz are also deported along with the Öelet.

The Kyrgyz moved to northeastern China will become known as the Fuyu Kyrgyz, but they have today mostly merged with the Mongol and Chinese population.

The descendants of the Yenisei Kyrgyz today are the Kyrgyz, Khakas, and Altai peoples.

Prussia begins the 1761 campaign with just one hundred thousand available troops, many of them new recruits, and its situation seems desperate.

However, the Austrian and Russian forces are also heavily depleted and cannot launch a major offensive.

In February 1761 Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick surprises French troops at Langensalza, then advances to besiege Cassel in March.

He is forced to lift the siege and retreat after French forces regroup and capture several thousand of his men at the Battle of Grünberg.

At the Battle of Villinghausen, forces under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick defeat a ninety-two thousand-man French army.

On the eastern front, progress is very slow.

The Russian army is heavily dependent upon its main magazines in Poland, and the Prussian army launches several successful raids against them.

One of them, led by general Platen in September results in the loss of two thousand Russians, mostly captured, and the destruction of five thousand wagons.

Deprived of men, the Prussians have to resort to this new sort of warfare, raiding, to delay the advance of their enemies.

Nonetheless, at the end of the year, they suffer two critical setbacks.

The Russians under Zakhar Chernyshev and Pyotr Rumyantsev storm Kolberg in Pomerania, while the Austrians capture Schweidnitz.

The loss of Kolberg costs Prussia its last port on the Baltic Sea.

A major problem for the Russians throughout the war has always been their weak logistics, which have prevented their generals from following up their victories, and now with the fall of Kolberg, the Russians can at long last supply their armies in Central Europe via the sea.

The fact that the Russians can now supply their armies over the sea, which is considerably faster and safer (Prussian cavalry cannot intercept Russian ships in the Baltic) than over the land threatens to swing the balance of power decisively against Prussia.

In Britain, it is speculated that a total Prussian collapse is now imminent.

Lantingshausen's commands have exceeded any expectations, but he has tired of the immense difficulties and resigns in June 1761.

Only in July is his successor Augustin Ehrensvard able to raise seven thousand men to invade the enemy's country.

Although superior to the Prussian army that tries to prevent his advance, they are so poorly equipped that the advance does not get far and the campaign sees only minor engagements.

In September he sends two regiments under count Frederick William von Hessenstein to support the Russians, who have been besieging Kolberg since 1759.

However, Hessenstein soon has to withdraw and in October the whole Swedish force returns to Swedish Pomerania.

When the Prussians begin to worry about their borders, he sends Jacob Magnus Sprengtporten with light troops (the so-called Sprengtportenska) to Mecklenburg and on December 23 defeats a Prussian force at Malchin.

Here, however, he is surrounded by a superior Prussian force, though Ehrensvard is able to break through and rescue him.

Ahmad Shah had returned in 1760 to fight a campaign in northern India, which culminates in his defeat of the Marathas at Panipat in January 1761, but the large-scale attacks that he has unleashed on the villages of Sikh peasantry lead only to intensified resistance.

His area of control is constantly under threat.

The French capital of Pondicherry, after Wandiwash, falls to the British in 1761.

Spain and Portugal had remained neutral when the Seven Years' War between France and Great Britain started in 1756.

Their differences in South America had been settled by the Treaty of Madrid (1750).

King Ferdinand VI of Spain's prime minister Ricardo Wall had opposed the French party who wanted to enter the war on the side of France.

Britain had made an attempt to persuade Spain to join the war on their side, by offering Gibraltar in exchange for Spanish help in regaining Minorca, but this had been rejected by Madrid.

Everything changed when Ferdinand VI died in 1759 and was succeeded by his younger half-brother Charles III of Spain.

Charles is more ambitious than his melancholic brother.

One of the main objects of Charles's policy is the survival of Spain as a colonial power and, therefore, as a power to be reckoned with in Europe.

By 1761 France looked to be losing the war against Great Britain.

Furthermore, Spain has suffered from attacks by English privateers in Spanish waters, and claims compensation.

Charles is alarmed by the British conquest of the French Empire in North America, and fears his own empire will be Pitt's next target.

Fearing that a British victory over France in the Seven Years' War will upset the balance of colonial power, he signs the Family Compact with France (both countries are ruled by branches of the Bourbon family) in August 1761, offering them practical support.

This will bring war with Great Britain in January 1762.

The Jesuits, on the advice of their lawyers, appeal to the Parlement of Paris.

This turns out to be an imprudent step for their interests.

Not only does the Parlement support the lower court, May 8, 1761, but having once gotten the case into its hands, the Jesuits' opponents in this assembly determine to strike a blow at the Order.

The Jesuits have many who oppose them.

The Jansenists are numerous among the enemies of the orthodox party.

The Sorbonne joins the Gallicans, the Philosophes, and the Encyclopédistes.

Louis XV is weak; his wife and children are in favor of the Jesuits; his able first minister, the Duc de Choiseul, plays into the hands of the Parlement, and the royal mistress, Madame de Pompadour, to whom the Jesuits have refused absolution for she is living in sin with the King of France, is a determined opponent.

The determination of the Parlement of Paris in time bears down all opposition.

Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, a French chemist, in 1761  proposes the name alumine, after Latin alumen, a substance having an astringent taste, for the base in alum, now known to be a compound of aluminum.

Pitt, seeing evidence of growing Franco-Spanish co-operation, suggests it is only a matter of time before Spain enters the war.

The prospect of war with Spain shatters the cabinet unity that has existed up to this point.

Pitt strongly advocates a pre-emptive strike that would allow them to capture the annual plate fleet, denying Spain of its vital resources of wealth that are shipped in.

The rest of the cabinet refuses, and Pitt resigns.

In spite of this war with Spain swiftly becomes unavoidable; by 1761 France looks like losing the war against Great Britain.

Furthermore, Spain suffers from attacks by British privateers in Spanish waters, and claims compensation.

Charles, fearing that a British victory over France in the Seven Years' War will upset the balance of colonial power, signs the Family Compact with France (both countries are ruled by branches of the Bourbon family) in August 1761.

As a result on January 4, 1762, Britain will duly declare war on Spain.