In Search of Empire
The French in the Americas, 1670–1730

Elusive Empire was the first full account of how between 1670 and 1730 French settlers came to the Americas.

James Pritchard (Author)

9780521711111, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 23 July 2007

514 pages
22.1 x 15 x 3.3 cm, 0.68 kg

"...the work is an essential interpretation of the French colonies and an important resource on many of the details of colonial administration and warfare." -Thomas J. Lappas, H-French-Colonial

The decades between 1670 and 1730 were the most formative in the history of the French colonies in the Americas. A sufficient number of migrants arrived from France and Africa to create settlements, establish economies of production, develop networks of exchange and trade, and adapt institutions of government and law to give substance and form to their resulting societies. Elusive Empire was the first full account of how during these years French settlers came to the Americas. It examines how they and thousands of African slaves together with Amerindians constructed settlements and produced and traded commodities for export. Bringing together much evidence, the author explores how the newly constructed societies and new economies, without precedent in France, interacted with the growing international violence in the Atlantic world in order to present a fresh perspective of the multifarious French colonizing experience in the Americas.

List of tables
Maps and graphs
Illustrations
Preface
Dates, weights, measures and currencies
List of abbreviations
Part 1: Colonies Formed: 1. Colonial populations
2. Settlements and societies
3. Production
4. Trade and exchange
5. Government and politics
Part 2: Colonies Defended: 6. The Franco-Dutch War in the Americas, 1672–8
7. France and the Nine Years' War in the Americas
8. The War of the Spanish Succession in the Americas
9. Elusive empire
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK]