In 1700 the idea that an English expedition would lead the way in Antarctic exploration seventy years later would have seemed highly unlikely. France and Britain were roughly equal in economic status, and although the two countries had comparably high average standards of living, France's population and size was five times larger than Britain's. Both were major colonial powers, with possessions in North America, the Caribbean and India that were roughly equal in size and wealth. France was as much of a world power as Britain, and the military strength of each was roughly equal, a fact attested to by the five decades of war between them in the century. France was probably the frontrunner in science, technology and philosophy, and in the first decades of the eighteenth century exhibited the stronger impulse to southern hemisphere exploration. In the Paris salons, royal courts and scientific clubs, philosophes speculated on the existence of the long-theorized southern continent, and the French Indies Company sponsored François Joseph Bouvet to rediscover the fabled Gonneville Land in 1738. Although Bouvet's expedition disappointed the hopes of the French company, it further stimulated interest in the southern hemisphere. French intellectuals devoted considerable effort to unravelling the mystery of the Great South Land.