Beyond the Ocean: France and the Atlantic World from the Crusades to the Age of Revolutions

A bold reinterpretation of French colonialism from its medieval roots to the early nineteenth centuryBetween 1400 and 1800, the people of Europe, Africa, and the Americas grew ever more connected by overseas trade and colonization.Histories of this transformative era have been dominated by Iberian and British experiences, overlooking the vast reach of the pre-Napoleonic French Empire.Yet by the mid-eighteenth century, France claimed nearly a third of North America, ruled over the Caribbean's most profitable and brutal plantations, and controlled a substantial proportion of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.In Beyond the Ocean, Christopher Hodson and Brett Rushforth reveal the significant role that France played in the history of the Atlantic world and the ways the Atlantic shaped France in return.Drawing on expansive original research in multiple languages, they craft an unconventional history of empire that highlights the experiences, priorities, and influence of Native Americans and Wes