Canada et Louisiane

A fascinating map of the eastern seaboard of North America showing the extent of English land claims at the start of the French and Indian War. Ironically, this map was not produced by the English, but rather by the geographer to the French king. A manuscript note next to the printed colour key tells us that this example was coloured to show England's interpretation of its territorial claims - "Selon les anglois". We have seen other examples of this map without the hand-written note which show France's preferred borders instead. It is likely that this map was intended to be sold and displayed as a pair to show the difference in views between the two nations.

The main map focuses on the English colonies east of the Appalachian Mountains and eastern Canada. Surprisingly, large swathes of Canada are shown as claimed by Britain, with only Quebec left to the French. English claims extend beyond the current US-Canada border to include parts of Ontario, including the location of modern-day Toronto. The border of the English claims then follows the Illinois River south to the 40th parallel, where it heads straight to the west coast of the continent. Modern-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other other states north of the 40th parallel are generously left to the French, while the English stake their claim to all of French Louisiana.

A large inset map shows the Mississippi Basin in greater detail - excellent detail for the time this map was published. Another, smaller, inset shows parts of West Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi which belonged to Spain but were also claimed by England. Despite having little to no presence throughout this region, especially along the French-dominated Mississippi River, this map boldly claims the region for the English.

The claims on this map mirror those shown on the famous Mitchell map of 1755, which became the landmark document supporting British colonisation west of the Appalachian mountains. It was also later used to establish the borders of the newly-independent United States. It is remarkable that Le Rouge had access to the Mitchell map so quickly after it was published and was able to produce his own map of the region to dispute England's land-grab.

Original hand-colour. [USA10076]