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The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire Book Review

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 · 46 ratings  · iii reviews
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Paul
Sep xxx, 2013 rated it it was amazing
In his volume, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, Paul Mapp strives to explain the reasoning behind the French cession of Western Louisiana to Espana at the stop of the French Indian War. The northwestern region of North America was largely a mystery to Europeans who lacked geographic knowledge of the region during the colonial era. Mapp argues that the possible existence of a waterway to the Pacific made the region extremely valuable to French republic prior to the French Indian War, and thus wort In his volume, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, Paul Mapp strives to explain the reasoning behind the French cession of Western Louisiana to Spain at the cease of the French Indian War. The northwestern region of North America was largely a mystery to Europeans who lacked geographic knowledge of the region during the colonial era. Mapp argues that the possible beingness of a waterway to the Pacific fabricated the region extremely valuable to France prior to the French Indian War, and thus worth maintaining. By the end of the French Indian War, however, French officials found that the surface area was not worth any potential benefit that it might bring to France. Spain accustomed the territory to foreclose it from falling into the hands of the British.
Mapp's statement rests on an estimation of diplomatic records from Spain, Slap-up United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, and French republic. Mapp also provides the reader with a wide multifariousness of maps from the period, more often than not of French origin, which is not surprising considering the importance of geography to the argument. Finally, the author employs the methods of anthropology and linguistics in his discussion of why the French found it difficult to have advantage of Native geographic understanding in the region.
Mapp'south work is organized in five thematic parts that are written chronologically. The commencement part of the book sets the tone past explaining the difficulties and disappointments that the Spaniards faced in trying to map out lands north of New United mexican states. The rough nature of the geography of the Northwest also as cultural and linguistic differences betwixt the Spaniards and Natives exacerbated Castilian difficulties in mapping the region. Part two focuses more than on the Pacific Ocean, the potential for wealth and merchandise in the region, and efforts on the function of the English language and French to siphon wealth out of the region. Spain gained exclusive access to the Pacific Sea later on the State of war of Spanish Succession and the French looked to other possible avenues to reach markets in the Pacific Rim. Part iii focuses on French efforts to find a navigable waterway through the American Northwest in order to gain access to sources of Castilian wealth. The French failed to map out the region despite their cartographic expertise which had been used successfully in France, Russia, and China. The French found themselves unable to use their geographic methods in the Northwest due the aforementioned cultural and linguistic difficulties that the Castilian had encountered, as well as, intertribal hostilities in the region which impeded constructive advice and observation.
Role five covers British efforts to gain access to markets in the Pacific by a waterway that they hoped to observe west of the Hudson Bay. The French responded aggressively to British actions in North America and were willing to go to state of war to protect territories that they had not successfully explored. The Castilian were well aware of British efforts to interlope on markets in the Pacific but did not desire to risk hostilities with Great Britain and maintained relatively practiced relations with the kingdom until 1757. With the beginning of the French Indian War in the 1750s, the French assumed that the Spanish would be a willing ally against the British, merely the Castilian remained neutral in the conflict until 1761 considering the Spanish considered French incursions in Northward America just as threatening to their interests as British actions. The fifth and final role of the book focuses on the event of the Seven Years State of war and the French cession of Western Louisiana to Spain in 1762. During the state of war, the value of unexplored territories diminished for French leaders and the Castilian found themselves willing to accept French territory to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British.
Mapp makes several contributions to the study of colonial America. His work reminds historians of the geographic doubtfulness that existed during the colonial era and points out how this incertitude contributed to international hostility. 2d, the British and French were not the merely empires that competed for lands in Due north America and serious historians should not discount the contributions of the Spanish to the development of colonial history. Finally, the effect of the French Indian War was impacted not just by the devastation of the French armada, but the failure on the part of the French to gain Spanish allegiance against the British, largely due to misguided assumptions that the Spanish wouldn't see the French every bit annihilation but malevolent.

Question: Mapp argues that several factors impeded European exploration and cartographic recording of the northwest of North America resulting in geographic ignorance of the region on the part of Europeans. These factors included cultural differences in the way that Native Americans and Europeans thought about time and space, the linguistic diversity of the region, and hostilities between Natives and Europeans as well as among the inhabitants of the region itself. European geographic ignorance of the American northwest and the dream of waterway in to the Pacific persisted until the expedition of Lewis and Clark in the first decade of the nineteenth-century which determined that such a passage did non exist. What changed in the interim decades that made Lewis and Clark's expedition more conclusive than earlier French efforts had been?

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Roz
December xvi, 2021 rated it really liked it
Excellent book on regal conflict and geography during the eighteenth century. Writing is very clear, making it a faster read than expected given the length of the book.
Işıl
It was a requirement for class (also the reason I finished information technology in record time) only honestly I forever gave up my hope of enjoying a pre-revolution book. Just doesn't work. It was a requirement for class (likewise the reason I finished it in record time) but honestly I forever gave up my hope of enjoying a pre-revolution book. Simply doesn't work. ...more than
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