Colonies Francaises (en Amerique)

Title

Colonies Francaises (en Amerique)

Description

Map shows the french colonies,Ile St. Martin, Ile de Terre Neuve,Guyane Francaise and Les Isels St. Pierre et Miquelon, with beautyfull ans splendid representation of flora and fauna

ca. 1825

Artist

Lemercier / Levasseur (1800-1870)

Cadastre of the War and Bridge Department by V. Levasseur, Geographer Engineer attached to the Cadastre and the City of Paris. Huge Parisian firm of lithographic printers founded by Joseph Rose Lemercier (1803-1887), who began as the foreman for Langlumé in 1825. Working on his own account from 1827, 1829-36 in partnership with Bénard association formed in 1837 according to IFF catalogue for Joseph Lemercier. The firm was still active in 1841.

Historical Description

The Caribbean is named after the Caribs people, which the Spanish conquerors found in the Lesser Antilles (lat. Ante ilium, "offshore islands"). It was also called the West Indies because it was believed to have been discovered by sea directly to India. Before the discoveries in the 1st millennium BC Arawak Indians came from Venezuela to the Caribbean Islands. They spread northwards through Trinidad. They were followed around 1500 years later by the warlike Caribs, which the Arawak slowly pushed away from the Lesser Antilles. At the time of Christopher Columbus' voyages of discovery, the Arawak inhabited the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola and the Bahamas, while the Caribs lived in the Lesser Antilles. When Columbus landed in San Salvador (Bahamas) on behalf of the Spanish crown in 1492, he was primarily looking for gold and other riches. But the Arawak did not care what Europeans saw as wealth. So the Caribbean was settled, but the conquistadors soon moved to the American continent. Gradually, English, Dutch and French settled. Even Denmark, Sweden and Courland were owned by some colonies. St. Barthélemy was for excample. almost a century under Swedish rule. Many of the native Indians eventually fell victim to introduced diseases or slavery. The Caribbean was particularly active in the 17th and early 18th centuries for Buccaneers and Pirates (so-called Golden Age of Piracy). The small islands offered the pirates, some of whom were privateers commissioned by a king, numerous shelters, and the Spanish treasure fleets were a good and worthwhile target. Port Royal in Jamaica and the French settlement on Tortuga were real pirate settlements.