Major Powers in North America by 1700

Four Contenders for Continental Dominance

1. Great Britain: Thirteen Atlantic seaboard colonies; strongest navy; expanding commercial economy.
2. France: New France (Canada, Acadia, Louisiana); vast fur-trade network; strategic forts on Great Lakes & Mississippi.
3. Spain: Florida, Southwest, California missions; global empire but thinner North American settlement.
4. Native American Confederacies & Nations: Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Cherokee, Apache, Sioux, and many others—sovereign powers controlling interior lands and trade routes.

European rivalry (Queen Anne's War, etc.) and Indigenous diplomacy shaped the 18th-century balance of power.