Kourou and the Struggle for a French America

"Kourou and the Struggle for a French America explores the famous enterprise of the French monarchy, taking place immediately after the Seven Years War--the establishment of a French colony in America. Kourou was to be a wonderful revenge, directed by the brightest scientific minds of the Enlightenment as they sought to create a new settlement akin to El Dorado. The French government promised free travel, and other advantages never offered before. The settlement was deemed so important that the British government maintained a close eye on its development. However, the fantastic ideal of this new French colonial world became a grand failure, and a political disaster. Kourou marked the end of the French attempts for an American colony, and the shift of attention to Africa and Asia, her 'second' world empire"--