"Louisiana, the Pelican St ..." a Louisiana Travel Page by seagoingJLW

I love New Orleans. It is so different from other cities in the USA. And the state of Louisiana operates under Napoleonic Law. Louisiana is divided into parishes instead of counties.<BR>

History

In 1541, DeSoto carried the Spanish flag into northern Louisiana. Ten flags were to fly over the state. Colonization began with the French more than a century later with the advent of Rober Cavelier , Sieur de La Salle in 1682. Near the mouth of the Mississippi he planted a cross, unfurled the Fleur-de-Lis, claimed all the lands drained by the river for his King, Louis XIV, and named the lands, La Louisiane.

The first settlement was a fort, established in 1699 by Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville. The first permanent settlement was Natchitoches founded in 1714. Four years later, D'Iberville's brother, Jean Baptist le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded New Orleans.

In 1762, France ceded all the land west of the Mississippi plus the New Orleans area to Spain and the remaining area, known as New Florida to England. The territory was receded to Napoleonic France in 1801 by the Treaty of San Ildefonso. The French then sold the territory to the new American Republic for $15 million.

In 1812, Louisiana became th eighteenth state. When the War of 1812 ended with the British in New Orleans, news was late reaching them and Andrew Jackson and an American force routed the British invaders on January 8, 1815 in the Battle of New Orleans.

Louisiana secede from the Union in January 1861, becoming an independent repeublic under its own flag before joining the Confederacy.. In April, 1862, a Union fleet under the command of David G. Farragut captured New Orleans which remained in Federal hands under General Benjamin F. Butler.

After the war the channels of the Mississippi were deepened to allow Ocean vessels to enter New Orleans. the levee system was rebuilt and improved. The first oil well was drilled in 1901.

In 1927, Governor Huey P Long led the overthrow of the entrenched landed gentry and created a powerful political machine. He modernized Louisiana's highways, enlarged the state university and hospital systems, built a seaway, an airport, a bridge and spillway at New Orleans, and a new capitol and governor's mansion at Baton Rouge..