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"Kourou and the Struggle for a French America explores the famous enterprise of the French monarchy, taking place immediately after the Seven Years War--the establishment of a French colony in America. Kourou was to be a wonderful revenge, directed by the brightest scientific minds of the Enlightenment as they sought to create a new settlement akin to El Dorado. The French government promised free travel, and other advantages never offered before. The settlement was deemed so important that the British government maintained a close eye on its development. However, the fantastic ideal of this new French colonial world became a grand failure, and a political disaster. Kourou marked the end of the French attempts for an American colony, and the shift of attention to Africa and Asia, her 'second' world empire"--
List of contents
Introduction 1. Farewell Quebec 2. The Kingdom of the Golden King 3. Americas 4. White Colony 5. Forces Present 6. Mirages 7. From the Rhine to the Atlantic 8. Disaster Ahead 9. Kourou 10. The Trap was Sprung 11. Turgot's Disgrace Conclusion
About the author
Marion Godfroy is Associate Researcher at Université de la Sorbonne Paris I, France. She is a French historian, the award-winning author of four historical books.
Report
"Godfroy presents an engaging analysis of this fascinating chapter in French colonial history. While her study says little about interactions between Europeans and native peoples, unlike many recent works in Atlantic colonial history, she offers helpful detail about the officials who planned the mission as well as the would-be colonists. In doing so, she provides a fresh view of why European colonists ventured to the New World, as well as of the difficulties faced by metropolitan officials planning far-away settlements." (Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, American Historical Review, Vol. 121 (4), October, 2016)
