Contents -- Acknowledgments -- List of Illustrations -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- PART I: THE SPANISH EMPIRE AND THE ELUSIVE WEST -- 1 Peoples and Terrain, Difficulties and Disappointments -- 2 Exploiting Indigenous Geographic Understanding -- PART II: SOUTH SEA INTERLUDE -- 3 The Alluring Pacific Ocean -- 4 The Pacific Ocean and the War of the Spanish Succession -- PART III: FRANCE AND THE ELUSIVE WEST AFTER THE TREATY OF UTRECHT -- 5 Visions of Western Louisiana -- 6 Imperial Comparisons -- 7 Communication and Interpretation -- 8 Restricted Pathways -- PART IV: BRITISH PACIFIC VENTURES AND THE EARLY YEARS OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR -- 9 British Designs on the Spanish Empire, 1713-1748 -- 10 French Reactions to the British Search for a Northwest Passage from Hudson Bay and the Origins of the Seven Years' War -- 11 Spanish Reactions to British Pacific Encroachments, 1750-1757 -- 12 French Borderlands Encroachments and Spanish Neutrality -- PART V: THE ELUSIVE WEST AND THE OUTCOME OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR -- 13 French Geographic Conceptions and the 1762 Western Louisiana Cession -- 14 Spain's Acceptance of Trans-Mississippi Louisiana -- 15 Old Visions and New Opportunities: Britain and the Spanish Empire at the End of the Seven Years' War -- Conclusion -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.