The Battle of Quebec and the Birth of Empire. 1759 was a year in which the decisions of men changed the world for ever. Perched on a tall promontory, surrounded on three sides by the treacherous St Lawrence River, Quebec - in 1759 France's capital city in Canada - formed an almost impregnable natural fortress. That year, with the Seven Years War raging around the globe, a force of 49 ships and nearly 9,000 men commanded by General Wolfe, scaled the cliffs and laid siege to the town, to try to expel the French from North America forever. Told from all perspectives, and based on original research, this is history - military, political, human - on an epic scale.