Kourou and the Struggle for a French America [Paperback]

Kourou was to be a wonderful revenge, a French colony in America after the Seven Years War in 1763. However, the fantastic ideal became a grand failure and political disaster, marking the end of the French attempts for an American colony.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 ConclusionGodfroy 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)

Marion Godfroy is Associate Researcher at Universit? de la Sorbonne Paris I, France. She is a French historian, the award-winning author of four historical books.