Adventurism and Empire The Struggle for Mastery in the Louisiana-Florida Borderlands, 1762-1803 / David Narrett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Narrett, David E., 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Borderlands--United States--History--18th century.

Borderlands.

Spain--Foreign relations--United States.

Spain.

United States--Foreign relations--Spain.

United States.

Gulf States--History--To 1803.

Gulf States.

Florida--History--To 1821.

Florida.

Louisiana--History--To 1803.

Louisiana.

West Florida--History.

West Florida.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (390 p.)

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2015

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this expansive book, David Narrett shows how the United States emerged as a successor empire to Great Britain through rivalry with Spain in the Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast. As he traces currents of peace and war over four critical decades--from the close of the Seven Years War through the Louisiana Purchase--Narrett sheds new light on individual colonial adventurers and schemers who shaped history through cross-border trade, settlement projects involving slave and free labor, and military incursions aimed at Spanish and Indian territories. Narrett examines the clash of empires and nationalities from diverse perspectives. He weighs the challenges facing Native Americans along with the competition between Spanish, French, British, and U.S. interests. In a turbulent era, the Louisiana and Florida borderlands were shaken by tremors from the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution. By demonstrating pervasive intrigue and subterfuge in borderland rivalries, Narrett shows that U.S. Manifest Destiny was not a linear or inevitable progression. He offers a fresh interpretation of how events in the Louisiana and Florida borderlands altered the North American balance of power, and affected the history of the Atlantic world.

Contents:

Part I. Struggles for empire in peace and war, 1762-1787

Prologue: the open and hidden features of peace: Louisiana, Florida, and the imperial settlement of 1762-1763

Maritime and interior colony: beginnings of British West Florida, 1763-1766

The conundrum of "Spanish-French" Louisiana: British imperialism and the Mississippi-Gulf frontier, 1766-1775

Opening salvos in a Revolutionary War, 1776-1779

Multiple conflicts: warfare and a disputed peace, 1779-1783

Bidding and conspiring for access to the realm, 1783-1787

Part II. New empires, new republics, 1787-1803

Prologue: Wilkinson and the imperial self

License to venture: colonization and commercial adventurism

Frontier separatism and integration

Conspiracies and international turmoil

Intrigues across Creek Country and beyond

The imperial question at century's end

Conclusion: the impermanence of boundaries.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9798890844552

9798890844569

9781469636030

1469636034

9781469618357

1469618354

OCLC:

903620909