Begun as a royal adventure to enhance the glory of the king, the Dutch War sparked serious debate within the French government over the relationship of the ruler to the state. Ekberg focuses on one significant year of the war and explains how, despite opposition by several counselors, the king escalated the original conflict into a full European war and wrought a dramatic shift in French policy. The study is arranged thematically to bring clarity to a period of complex issues.
Originally published in 1979.
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The standard story of St. Louis's founding tells of fur traders Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau hacking a city out of wilderness. St. Louis Rising overturns such gauzy myths with the contrarian thesis that French government officials and institutions shaped and structured early city society. Of the former, none did more than Louis St. Ange de Bellerive. His commitment to the Bourbon monarchy and to civil tranquility made him the prime mover as St. Louis emerged during the tumult following the French and Indian War. Drawing on new source materials, the authors delve into the complexities of politics, Indian affairs, slavery, and material culture that defined the city's founding period. Their alternative version of the oft-told tale uncovers the imperial realities--as personified by St. Ange--that truly governed in the Illinois Country of the time, and provide a trove of new information on everything from the fur trade to the arrival of the British and Spanish after the Seven Years' War.