Maps of United States History and the French and Indian War

Maps of United States history created in company with the wars fought during its early years are the foundation many modern American maps evolved from. Surely today’s technology places almost any knowledge within reach, but 200 years ago, before basic electronic surveying equipment, familiarity with one’s surroundings came only by placing one foot in front of the other.

The French and Indian War in particular, which was fought primarily in the wilderness of a new continent, contributed a great deal to the maps we depend upon today. Maps were a necessity at all stages of war. As boundaries and loyalties shifted, far away rulers dispatched the very best map makers to document their holdings, both for vanity and security.

Some of the first maps of United States territory were created in and around the time of the French and Indian War in the 1750’s, among them Joshua Fry’s and Peter Jefferson’s A map of the inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole Province of Maryland, Part of Pensilvania, New Jersey, and North Carolina; Lewis Evans’ A General Map of the Middle British Colonies; and John Mitchell’s A Map of the British and French Dominions in North America. Early
surveyors in Great Britain and France were a commodity throughout this conflict because of the demand for intelligence of the British colonies in North America.

When the war ended, Great Britain commissioned surveyors to chart the course of the Mississippi River, and the entire eastern coast of America. Without this war and the responsibility it placed on pioneering professionals to make maps of United States, the knowledge we possess today would have been acquired in a very different way and at a much later date.