King George's War was an English-French conflict over Canada. During the course of the War of Spanish Succession (called Queen Anne's War in America), French and Indian forces were in conflict with the English in Canada for settlements there. The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's war in 1713 by granting certain territories to France and others to England, but ambiguities in the treaty led to subsequent hostilities between the two countries. By 1743 the French were again attacking settlements in Canada, Maine, and New York, precipitating King George's War, during the course of which (1743-1748) a New England force took Louisbourg and Cape Breton Island from the French.

In July 1746 Governor Gooch convened the Virginia General Assembly in response to a call for troops in the colonies to march with British forces on Canada. Recruiting was difficult because officers and men who had taken part in the Cartagena expedition during the war of Jenkins Ear felt that they had not received fair treatment from the British authorities. King George II again chose Gooch to lead the troops from the colonies, but he declined saying that he was "fitter for an hospital than a camp."

The attempt to add Canada to the English colonies failed, and King George's War ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Territories were restored as they had been before the conflict, but it was apparent that the treaty was only a truce, for hostilities broke out again only seven years later in the French and Indian War.