The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion
Jay Gitlin
Abstract
Histories tend to emphasize conquest by Anglo-Americans as the driving force behind the development of the American West. However, this book argues that the activities of the French are crucial to understanding the phenomenon of westward expansion. The Seven Years War brought an end to the French colonial enterprise in North America, but the French in towns such as New Orleans, St. Louis, and Detroit survived the transition to American rule. French traders from mid-America, such as the Chouteaus and Robidouxs of St. Louis, then became agents of change in the West, perfecting a strategy of “mid ... More
Keywords: fur trade, Anglo-Americans, American West, expansion, France, Seven Years War, New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit, American settlement
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2009 | Print ISBN-13: 9780300101188 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 | DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300101188.001.0001 |
