Seven Years War Map

This 1755 French map is described as an "English Propaganda Map." It's incredibly detailed! It can be found in full at Barry Lawrence Ruderman, linked below.

This map is a detailed representation of the geopolitical situation at the beginning of the Seven Years War (1756 to 1763), a conflict also called the "French Indian War" in the United States. While the rest of the map includes the controversy in land/river claims between the French and English in North America, I wanted to give the Red River portion a look-over, and was not disappointed!

The "R. Rouge" is very well examined here, with accurate latitude designations (longitudes are Greenwich/Paris). The entire Red River region is described via indigenous settlements. The villages in the green area would have been visited by the French and/or were described to French expeditionary delegations, and some of the villages closer to Natchitoches would have featured trading posts. The French, after all, desired their hides.

The yellow portion of the map is the land of the Cenis -- Caddo/Wichita. The Red River's villages include Caddo/Wichita people, but also Comanche (Cannessis) and even, perhaps, Kiowas (Kiohicans). This far-western portion of the Red River was once actually Apache homelands, but they were pushed out by the Comanche Empire.

East of the Mississippi River are the homelands of the Chickasaws, Creeks, and Choctaws. Notice that, according to the English, they reside in South Carolina. Actually, however, they had established most of their trade with the French, not the English. After the Seven Years' War, they traded with the English in what was designated the "Indian Proclamation," which was contained in much of the pink slither on this map. This led to conflicts that produced the American Revolutionary War (1776 to 1783) -- the English colonists (aka Americans) wanted access to this trade, which was only granted to a selected, well-connected few.

In any event, it's a great map, which you can see in it entirety on Barry Lawrence Ruderman's Rare Maps.