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Issued in the Universal Magazine at the outbreak of the French and Indian War, this vividly engraved map illustrates the contested geography of North America between the British and French empires. Published by John Hinton, the proprietor of The Universal Magazine, and almost certainly engraved by Thomas Kitchin, the magazine’s chief cartographer, the map was one of the earliest widely circulated British representations of the impending imperial conflict.
The coloring and layout clearly delineate the British colonies stretching along the eastern seaboard and the vast French claims extending from Canada and the St. Lawrence River across the Great Lakes and into the Mississippi Valley (Louisiana). Areas such as the Ohio Valley and the upper Mississippi are marked with both French and Indigenous place names, emphasizing the complex territorial realities prior to formal British conquest. Native nations including the Iroquois, Illinois, Mascoutens, and Choctaws are all named, reflecting their critical role in the imperial balance of power.
At the bottom of the map, the inset of Fort Frederick at Crown Point highlights one of the key flashpoints in the pre-war military landscape. Built by the French in 1731 to secure the Lake Champlain corridor, the fort was a focal point of British anxieties and later military action.
The rococo title cartouche, complete with several square-rigged ships, adds imperial flair and subtly underscores the maritime dimensions of the Anglo-French rivalry. Though the map was aimed at a popular audience, it served a real strategic function in shaping British perceptions of colonial geography in the lead-up to what would become the global Seven Years’ War.
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