1758 Tobias Lotter Large Antique Map of North America, French Indian War

Cartographer : Tobias Conrad Lotter

  • Title : Mappa Geographica Regionem Mexicanam et Floridam. Terrasque adjacentes ut et Anteriors Americae Insulas Cursus itidem et Reditus Navigantium versus flumen Missisipi et alais Colonias ob oculos ponens eura et sumptibus Tobiae Conradi Lotteri, Geograph et Chalcograph Augustae Vindel...Tob. Con. Lotter Sculps
  • Date : 1758
  • Condition: (A+) Fine Condition
  • Ref:  16495
  • Size: 24in x 20 1/2in (610mm x 520mm) 

Description: 
One of the best and most beautifully executed, iconic 18th century antique maps of colonial North America. Engraved after the 1703 map of North America by Guillaume Delisle, it was re-issued by a number of iconic 18th century cartographers. This beautifully hand coloured original antique map is one of the best, both engraved and published by Tobias Conrad Lotter in 1758. It was published during the French-Indian or Seven Year War, the first real Global conflict.
The large sea battle to the bottom left is used to illustrate the ongoing conflict, and the changing ownership of North America is illustrated in the specific demarcation of the British, French and Spanish regions. To the right of the map are four inset plans of Spanish possessions in Panama, Havana, Cartagena and Vera Cruz.
This map is in exceptional condition, with beautiful original ahnd colour, a heavy engraving (denoting an early pressing) on clean heavy sturdy crisp paper with original margins, a superb map.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy, stable & crisp
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: - Original & early
Colors used: - Blue, pink, red, green, yellow
General color appearance: - Authentic
Paper size: - 24in x 20 1/2in (610mm x 520mm)
Plate size: - 22 1/2in x 19 ½in (570mm x 495mm) 
Margins: - Min 1/2in (15mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - None
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: The French and Indian War (1754–63) pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France, each side supported by military units from the parent country and by American Indian allies. At the start of the war, the French colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 settlers, compared with 2 million in the British colonies.
The British colonists were supported at various times by the Iroquois, Catawba, and Cherokee, and the French colonists were supported by Wabanaki Confederacy members Abenaki and Mi'kmaq, and Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot. Fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, during which Virginia militiamen under the command of 22 year-old George Washington ambushed a French patrol.
In 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the main effort by Braddock proved a disaster; he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9, 1755 and died a few days later. British operations failed in the frontier areas of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Province of New York during 1755–57 due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, and they ordered the expulsion of the Acadians (1755–64) soon afterwards. Orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians were expelled, both those captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty. Indians likewise were driven off the land to make way for settlers from New England.
The British colonial government fell in the region of Nova Scotia after several disastrous campaigns in 1757, including a failed expedition against Louisbourg and the Siege of Fort William Henry; this last was followed by Indians torturing and massacring their British victims. William Pitt came to power and significantly increased British military resources in the colonies at a time when France was unwilling to risk large convoys to aid the limited forces that they had in New France, preferring to concentrate their forces against Prussia and its allies who were now engaged in the Seven Years' War in Europe. Between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada (part of New France). They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec (1759). The British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec (1760), but the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris (1763).
France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River (including New Orleans) to its ally Spain in compensation for Spain's loss to Britain of Spanish Florida. (Spain had ceded Florida to Britain in exchange for the return of Havana, Cuba.) Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, confirming Great Britains position as the dominant colonial power in America.

$1,999.00