British and French colonies, with their Indian allies, challenged each other for dominance of North America on the eve of the era of republican revolution. Freed from the threat of hostile French neighbors after the British victory in the French and Indian War in 1763, Britain’s American colonies increasingly demanded rights of political and economic independence.

Another copy of this map by John Mitchell (1711–1768) was used to define the boundaries of the new United States during negotiations for the peace treaty of 1783 that ended the American Revolution.