Des Possessions Francois Aujourd’hui sous la Domination Angloifes

Hand colored map of the Eastern United States published less than a decade after the American Revolution.

This is an interesting map of the eastern seaboard from Labrador and the Hudson Bay in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and inland as far as the Lake of the Woods and the Great Plains (labeled as home to the Padoucas, or Comanche tribes). The newly independent United States are colored in red, with an annotation listing the states ceded to the new government as a result of the Treaty of Paris signed in 1783. French possessions are confined to lands east of the Mississippi River and appear to include Florida, which was actually under the control of the Spanish at the time. The larger district of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River was also under Spanish control, and it would not be ceded to Napoleon until 1801. He would then go on to sell the territory to the United States in 1803.

Vast tracts of blank areas in the interior of the continent reflect the contemporary ignorance of its topography, and the mythical “River of the West” makes an appearance flowing from the Lake of the Woods. Numerous Native American tribes are listed, including the Miamis, Sioux, and Tecas (the French spelling of the Spanish word for the Caddo tribe). Extensive historical notes regarding the French and (former) English possessions can be seen on either side of the map.

Published in Clouet’s Geographie Moderne while he held the position of Royal Geographer of the Academie des Sciences de Rouen.