PART IV

The Paradox of Independence

AS THE BRITISH evacuated Pensacola and other port cities, people of the Gulf Coast wondered what the new order would bring. The most likely configuration seemed a continuation of multiple sovereignties, as Chickasaws, Creeks, Choctaws, and other Indian nations continued to rule their own territory, trading with one another and with colonies populated by combinations of French, Spanish, English, Scottish, Irish, German, and African people. Spanish imperial ambitions for North America were growing but might be compatible with or even assisted by strong allied Indian nations.

In contrast, this geography would sit uneasily beside an American republic that had rebelled against Great Britain in part for access to new land. The Treaty of Paris would end the American Revolution, but it would answer few questions about the future of the continent. Could the United States become one of many connected sovereign nations on the continent, securing its independence from Britain through interdependence with its neighbors? Or would its territorial ambition—the quest for new property by both American states and individual families—preclude the kinds of connections that would allow for sharing a continent?