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.