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Historians of geographical discoveries have yet to completely analyze French colonial maps. This historiography has long been contaminated by a positivist conceptual framework focused on the primacy of geographical discovery and the gradual progress of precision. This article proposes a reinterpretation of certain maps from the exploration journey of Jolliet and Marquette to the Mississippi (1672-1674). It pays attention to the details of the maps, their toponymy, omissions, the economic interests of colonial or metropolitan actors, and finally, discourses on colonial space. With the sending of maps to the court of the King of France, there is a deployment of a rhetorical arsenal aimed at influencing colonial policies regarding geographical expansion, all inexorably linked to the fur trade.
Keywords: Louis Jolliet, Mississippi, cartographie, carte géographique, XVII siècle, toponymie, espace colonial, Louis Jolliet, Mississippi, cartography, geographical map, 17 century, toponymy, colonial space