Amerique Septentrionale

French map of North America from an 1824 atlas.

This map of North America was issued by Felix Delamarche in the 1824 edition of his Atlas De La Geographie Ancienne et moderne. Outline color annotates the territorial claims of each of the major European powers and the borders of the United States, though some of the information is outdated.

For example, Florida is still shown as a separate territory and the western border with Mexico doesn’t follow officially the borders of the Adams-Onis treaty, signed in 1819. Territorial changes in the Caribbean were also frequent in the late 18th and early 19th century.

Delamarche may have had an incentive to downplay the role Europe played in the New World – in 1823 U.S. President James Monroe publicly asserted that the western hemisphere was firmly under the American sphere of influence, and cautioned European involvement in the region.