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Louisiana History
This southern state has a rich history and unique blend of cultures that is unrivalled anywhere else in the United States. The Louisiana area was first inhabited by Native American tribes including the Atakapa, Boocana, Nakasa and at least 12 other Indian clans. The first European explorers arrived from
Spain and visited the Mississippi Delta area in 1528. Hernando De Soto followed with his expedition in 1548.
The Europeans took little interest in the Louisiana region for more than one hundred and fifty years until the French came to call in the late 17th century.
France claimed a mighty chunk of North America for its own and began ambitious work on creating a commercial and religious domain from
Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
The
French explorer LaSalle gave the area its name in honor of King Louis XIV. This original
Louisiana territory encompassed what are now 15 of the biggest states in the USA on both sides of the
Mississippi River. New Orleans was declared the French capital of this New World due to its prime location along the Mighty Mississippi River.
The
French ceded most of the land east of the great river to
England after the French and Indian War (aka the Seven Years' War) in the mid 1700's. The rest became Spanish territory through the Treaty of Paris of 1763 at the end of the war.
After the Seven Years' War, thousands of French loyalists were ousted from
Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island and
New Brunswick (the area then known as Acadia) by the British. These refugees made the long trek south across the North American continent to Southwest Louisiana. Today's Cajun people are the descendents of Acadian settlers, with a rich culture all their own.
During the 1700's a bond between Louisiana and its parent Caribbean colony became strong and centered on maritime trade. The land of
Haiti had a strong influence on the people, culture, and religion of the area. Slave uprisings in the islands led to an influx of Haitian slave refugees, which the
Spanish attempted to curtail with little effect. When Haiti won its independence in 1790, thousands of displaced French descended on New Orleans and southern Louisiana, along with their African slaves. The fear of 'seditious activities' was very high, with these
Caribbean slaves spreading 'dangerous doctrines' among the local slave population.
Louisiana made its way back into the French Empire through a Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spain in 1800. Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, attempted to create a new world empire based on the
Caribbean sugar trade, with the linchpin being the take over and re-enslavement of the people of Santo Domingo (today's Dominican Republic). When the take over led by his brother failed, he decided to sell the whole Louisiana Territory to the
United States.
Louisiana Purchase
The U.S. did not originally intend to buy ALL of Louisiana, but just
New Orleans and surrounding regions. When Napoleon Bonaparte offered the entire Louisiana Territory, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson accepted. His special envoy James Monroe (later President Monroe) closed the '
Louisiana Purchase' for around $15 million in bonds, and that sale all but doubled the size of the United States of America overnight! After a rocky road through congress, Louisiana was officially transferred to the United States in 1803.
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