Narrett's Adventurism And Empire

Adventurism and Empire: The Struggle for Mastery in the Louisiana Florida Borderlands 1762-1803 by David Narrett is an interesting take on the Southeastern borderlands from the Seven Years War through the Louisiana Purchase. He attempts to weave a story that includes the competing interests of Spain, France, and England in North America. Narrett considers the Florida Louisiana border as one continuous line: what happens in one state affects the other. The narrative, hence, focuses on the Southeastern border, specifically Florida and Louisiana. The main claim of this book is that individuals were the driving force behind colonial governments. The book shows the weaknesses imperial governments had and how they used individuals to, as Narrett states, “extend national power.” A great example of European powers using private parties to push their agenda is George Johnstone. Johnstone was a naval captain who desired to sell English goods to Spanish colonists after Great Britain took over Florida. Johnstone successfully pushed “Florida’s borders into the …show more content…
This would not change the fact that the French and Spanish still had considerable territories in the Mississippi Florida borderlands. The American and French Revolutions would affect North America just as they would affect Europe. The consequences of the French Revolution were the “projected assaults launched from the United States on Madrid’s exposed North American possessions.” The British, in the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, would cede Florida to the Spanish. In Narrett’s opinion, this is one of the more “overlooked consequences of the War.” In the latter stages of the conflict, Florida was a place of refuge for British loyalists and slaves. “More than 5,000 whites and 8,200 slaves entered the province.” This also brought with it fear that in their exodus, loyalists would remain under Spanish