The decades between 1670 and 1730 were the most formative in the history of the French colonies in the Americas. In Search of Empire is the first full account of how French settlers came to the Americas during these years. It examines how they and thousands of African slaves together with Amerindians constructed settlements and produced and traded commodities for export. Bringing together much new evidence, the author explores how the newly constructed societies and new economies, without precedent in France, interacted with the growing international violence in the Atlantic world in order to present a fresh perspective of the multifarious French colonizing experience in the Americas.