In North America, the Seven Years war started in 1754. Initially, the French and their Indian allies were rather successful, repelling several British invasions of Canada and defeating Braddock's army that attempted to capture the French Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio river.
In 1758, the British captured the important French fort of Louisbourg, in Nova Scotia on July 26 1758. The British also sent a larger army, commanded by General Forbes, to capture Fort Duquesne. On September 14th an advanced guard under the command of Colonel Grant was defeated near Fort Duquesne. They lost nearly as many men as General Braddock, but shortly after this battle, the French realized that there was still 5,000 British soldiers nearby and their Indian allies withdrew. The French destroyed Fort Duquesne and retreated up the Allegheny river valley.
All of this set the stage for a series of British victories in 1759, which included the capture of Quebec city and two major naval victories at the battles of Lagos (Portugal not Nigeria) and the morale shattering victory at the battle of Quiberion Bay. In this battle, the British admiral Hawke chased Conflans' French fleet into their naval base at Brest, with a near hurricane force gale wind at their back. They sank six French ships of the line and captured one more. They bottled up the French fleet for the rest of the war. Several British historians have called 1759 "Annus Mirabilis" because the British won so many battles that year. It saw the end of France's presence in India, at least one miraculous victory in Europe by Frederick the Great's Prussian army, and left the French isolated in Canada. Montreal did not fall until 1760, but they were cut off and could not get any help from France, so the fall of Montreal was somewhat anti-climatic.
Source: "The War that Made America: A short History of the French and Indian War" by Fred Anderson which was the companion book for the 2006 PBS four hour long documentary of the same name. http://www.pbs.org/thewarthatmadeamerica/