Synopses & Reviews
This account of French settlers, who came to the Americas from 1670 through 1730, examines how they and thousands of African slaves (together with Amerindians) constructed settlements and produced and traded commodities for export. Bringing together much new evidence, James Pritchard explores how the newly constructed societies and new economies (without precedent in France) interacted with international violence in the Atlantic world and presents a new perspective on the diverse French colonizing experience in the Americas.
Review
"Some books become must-read classics that no serious student can ignore. James Pritchard's In Search of an Empire: The French in Americas, 1670-1730 will undoubtedly be such a book....[It] is an extremely well written book...This superb study of French colonization in America offers one of the very best introductions to the subject available today. No serious student of French America can afford to bypass this book."
- International Journal of Maritime History"This well-written work will become an indispensable reference for anyone interested in the history of France's first colonies."
- American Historical Review, Leslie Choquette"This is an impressively researched work."
- The Journal of American History, John T. McGrath, Boston University, Massachusetts"The author draws on archival findings as wells as scattered existing studies, and the book, with ample footnotes and an excellent bibliography, constitutes an invaluable resource for anyone interested in comparative colonialism."
- The Journal of Military History, Daniel A. Baugh, Cornell University"...the author's grasp of a rich and wide-ranging recent historiography [makes this his] ... most ambitious book. Those who lecture to undergraduates in comparative European colonial history will find this particularly useful."
The Northern Mariner"...highly informative... The author draws on archival findings as well as scattered existing studies, and the book, with ample footnotes and an excellent bibliography, constitutes an invaluable resource for anyone interested in comparative colonialism."
The Journal of Military History
Synopsis
In Search of Empire is the first full account of how, during 1670 and 1730, French settlers came to the Americas. Bringing together much new evidence, it examines how they and thousands of African slaves together with American Indians constructed settlements and produced and traded commodities for export.
Synopsis
The first full account of how French settlers came to the Americas.
Table of Contents
List of tables; Maps and graphs; Illustrations; Preface; Dates, weights, measures and currencies; List of abbreviations; Part I. Colonies Formed: 1. Colonial populations; 2. Settlements and societies; 3. Production; 4. Trade and exchange; 5. Government and politics; Part II. Colonies Defended: 6. The Franco-Dutch War in the Americas, 1672-1678; 7. France and the Nine Years' War in the Americas; 8. The War of the Spanish Succession in the Americas; 9. Elusive empire; Appendices.