The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763

by Paul W Mapp

A truly continental history in both its geographic and political scope, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 investigates eighteenth-century diplomacy involving North America and links geographic ignorance about the American West to Europeans' grand geopolitical designs. Breaking from scholars' traditional focus on the Atlantic world, Paul W. Mapp demonstrates the centrality of hitherto understudied western regions to early American history and shows that a Pacific focus is crucial to understanding the causes, course, and consequences of the Seven Years' War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

476 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2011

Reviews

[Paul]

In his book, 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 end 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 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 area was not worth any potential benefit that it might bring to France. Spain accepted the territory to prevent it from falling into the hands of the British.
Mapp’s argument rests on an interpretation of diplomatic records from Spain, Great Britain, and France. Mapp also provides the reader with a wide variety of maps from the period, mostly 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 take advantage of Native geographic understanding in the region.
Mapp’s work is organized in five thematic parts that are written chronologically. The first part of the book sets the tone by explaining the difficulties and disappointments that the Spaniards faced in trying to map out lands north of New Mexico. The rough nature of the geography of the Northwest as well as cultural and linguistic differences between the Spaniards and Natives exacerbated Spanish difficulties in mapping the region. Part two focuses more on the Pacific Ocean, the potential for wealth and trade in the region, and efforts on the part of the English and French to siphon wealth out of the region. Spain gained exclusive access to the Pacific Ocean after the War of Spanish Succession and the French looked to other possible avenues to reach markets in the Pacific Rim. Part three focuses on French efforts to find a navigable waterway through the American Northwest in order to gain access to sources of Spanish 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 apply their geographic methods in the Northwest due the same cultural and linguistic difficulties that the Spanish had encountered, as well as, intertribal hostilities in the region which impeded effective communication and observation.
Part five covers British efforts to gain access to markets in the Pacific by a waterway that they hoped to find west of the Hudson Bay. The French responded aggressively to British actions in North America and were willing to go to war to protect territories that they had not successfully explored. The Spanish were well aware of British efforts to encroach on markets in the Pacific but did not want to risk hostilities with Great Britain and maintained relatively good 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, but the Spanish remained neutral in the conflict until 1761 because the Spanish considered French incursions in North America just as threatening to their interests as British actions. The fifth and final part of the book focuses on the outcome of the Seven Years War and the French cession of Western Louisiana to Spain in 1762. During the war, the value of unexplored territories diminished for French leaders and the Spanish 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 uncertainty that existed during the colonial era and points out how this uncertainty contributed to international hostility. Second, the British and French were not the only empires that competed for lands in North America and serious historians should not discount the contributions of the Spanish to the development of colonial history. Finally, the outcome of the French Indian War was impacted not only by the destruction of the French fleet, 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 as anything 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 not exist. What changed in the interim decades that made Lewis and Clark’s expedition more conclusive than earlier French efforts had been?

[Alex Milton]

The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 by Paul Mapp centers the American West in the interests of European colonization of North America. The book is organized into three parts, focusing on Spanish, French, and English colonization and competition in exploring and expanding westward. Relying on cartographic, diplomatic, and personal records, Mapp argues that European powers were primarily interested in identifying and controlling a waterway to the Pacific to streamline trade in Asia. European powers, which lacked an understanding of the extent or potential for the American West were also interested in discovering vast resources within the interior of the North American continent. The book asserts that interests in the American West remained a decisive consideration in the Seven Years War. Despite fierce inter-colonial competition, Europeans struggled in their expeditions because of misinformation, in large part stemming from struggles in communicating with indigenous communities. The Elusive West provides a powerful narrative that centers both Westward expansion and Native American interactions with Europeans in understanding the development of colonial North America.

[Mochi]

Excellent book on imperial 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 it in record time) but honestly I forever gave up my hope of enjoying a pre-revolution book. Simply doesn't work.