It was the scene in 1759 of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in the French and Indian War in which the British army under General Wolfe, having scaled the heights above the city under the cover of darkness, surprised and defeated the French. Both Wolfe and the French commander Montcalm died of their wounds, but the battle led to British control over Canada. France would later give up Canada in order to retain its possessions in the Antilles.
See Seven Years War, British colonization of the Americas, French colonization of the Americas.