Weapon and artillery condition reports from the First French Colonial Empire: Search results, Archives nationales d'outremer, Caribbean, Guyana and Louisiana

Abstract

This CSV file records the search results for terms "etat AND armes" and "etat AND artillerie" (condition/inventory AND weapons, condition/inventory AND artillery) from documents relating to the Caribbean, Louisiana and Guyana colonies of the First Colonial Empire collection, held at the French Archives nationales d'outremer (Overseas archives). The results range from 1675 to 1815. The file records the search term, archive directory and code of the record, date of the record, kind of record, title, and availability online. It then records whether the record includes any remarks on the condition of weapons/artillery (as opposed to simply recording numbers), and if so whether problems are noted, whether those noted problems are related to decay or climate, and finally whether mention is specifically made of rust/oxidisation. This data is intended to support the RUSTEE project; specifically, research into how the claims made in travel narratives about the problems with rusting equipment in different climates (Ligon 1673, Ellis 1748) are or are not reflected in routine colonial administrative correspondance in France's equatorial American colonies. It should also be useful to researchers interested more generally in the role of the island environment, climate and weather in European colonial projects.