Introduction to History of Louisiana
The Louisiana region was settled by Indians in prehistoric times, at least as early as 6,000 years ago. At the time of European exploration in the 16th century, there were more than 10,000 Indians in Louisiana. Tribes of the Muskhogean language family occupied the east-central and southeast region, Tunican tribes lived along the coast and in the northeast, and tribes of the Caddoan group inhabited the north and northwest. Generally these Indians lived in permanent villages and depended upon agriculture for their subsistence.
Important dates in Louisiana1541 Hernando de Soto led a group of Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) into the lower Mississippi River area.1682 Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. He claimed for France all the land drained by the Mississippi and its tributary river systems.1699 Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville, reclaimed the area for France. France had earlier abandoned it.1714 Louis Juchereau de St. Denis founded Natchitoches, the first permanent town in Louisiana.1718 Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founded New Orleans.1762 France ceded Louisiana to Spain.1795 Etienne de Bore successfully began granulating sugar on his New Orleans plantation.1800 Spain ceded Louisiana back to France.1803 The U.S. purchased Louisiana from France.1812 Louisiana became the 18th state on April 30.1815 During the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson and his small force defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans. Neither side was aware that the war had ended two weeks earlier.1861 Louisiana seceded from the Union.1862 Union troops captured New Orleans during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and held the city throughout the war.1868 Louisiana was readmitted to the Union.1901 Oil was discovered near Jennings and White Castle.1916 The Monroe natural gas field was opened.1928 Huey P. Long was elected governor.1935 Long, at the time a U.S. senator, was assassinated.1963 The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a short cut for shippers between New Orleans and the sea, opened.1975 The new state Constitution went into effect.1979 David C. Treen became the first Republican to be elected governor of Louisiana since the 1870’s.1990 Louisiana voters approved a state lottery.2003 Kathleen B. Blanco became the first woman to be elected governor of Louisiana.Exploration and Settlement
Louisiana was discovered by Spanish explorers. There are stories of the penetration of the Mississippi River Valley by Alvarez de Pineda in 1519 and exploration of the territory by followers of De Soto in 1542, but the authentic recorded history of the area does not actually begin until 1682. It was then that Sieur de La Salle, the French explorer, reached the mouth of the Mississippi, claimed all its drainage basin for France, and named the area Louisiana to honor Louis XIV.
Settlement was begun by the French when Sieur d'Iberville established a fort on the Gulf of Mexico in 1699. The site is now occupied by Ocean Springs (near Biloxi), Mississippi. In 1714 a French military and trading post was established in the interior at the site of Natchitoches, the oldest city in the state of Louisiana.
In 1717 John Law, a Scotsman working in France, was given control of Louisiana to colonize and develop it through his Company of Louisiana and the West (later called Company of the Indies). The following year Sieur de Bienville founded the village of New Orleans. Although Law's company brought many settlers to New Orleans and Louisiana, the company's unsound financing brought on a financial panic known as the Mississippi Bubble (1720). In 1732 the company gave up its rights in Louisiana and the region became a royal French colony.
In 1762 France ceded to Spain the Louisiana region west of the Mississippi, along with the New Orleans area. The remaining land east of the river was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Paris (1763). In 1800 Spain was forced by Napoleon Bonaparte to give back to France the Louisiana territory, including New Orleans.
Statehood
The United States acquired the area from France in 1803 through the Louisiana Purchase. In 1804 the region was divided into two sections—the District of Louisiana (later Missouri Territory), north of the 33rd parallel; and the Territory of Orleans, south of the parallel. In 1812 the Territory of Orleans and a small part of West Florida, still claimed by Spain, were admitted to the Union as Louisiana, the 18th state. Spain ceded West Florida in 1821.
In January, 1815, the British attacked New Orleans, unaware that a peace treaty to end the War of 1812 had been signed two weeks earlier. They were defeated by United States forces under Andrew Jackson. The victory unified the Spaniards, French, Americans, and others who made up the population of the state.
In 1849 Baton Rouge became the state capital, replacing New Orleans.
Civil War and Reconstruction
Cotton and sugar plantation owners, who held many slaves, were dominant in Louisiana when the Civil War drew near. The state seceded from the Union in January, 1861, and soon joined the Confederacy. However, New Orleans fell to a Union fleet under David G. Farragut in April, 1862, and from then on much of the state was in Union hands.
Reconstruction, the period following the war, was especially bitter for Louisiana. Republicans, who represented a minority, held control of the government until 1877, their rule depending upon the votes of the newly freed slaves and the support of federal troops. When federal troops were withdrawn by President Hayes, a group of conservative white Democrats was voted into power.
20th Century
The exploitation of Louisiana's petroleum and natural gas resources in the early 1900's aided industrialization. After Huey P. Long was elected governor in 1928, the state began a vast program of public improvements, aid to education, and help for needy residents that resulted in unprecedented tax burdens. Long functioned as a dictator and dominated state affairs even after he became a United States senator in 1931. He was assassinated in 1935.
Louisiana prospered during World War II, increasing its mineral production and manufacturing. In the 1950's it held out strongly against ending racially segregated public-school systems. However, federal court orders in 1960-61 made desegregation unavoidable. By the early 1970's more than two-thirds of the state's students were attending integrated schools.
In 1963, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet opened, providing shippers with a 44-mile shortcut between New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico via a 76-mile canal. The same year a project was completed to keep the Mississippi River from moving away from Baton Rouge and New Orleans; this included a dam, floodway, and levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers.
A new constitution, designed to streamline state government and to strengthen local government, was adopted in 1974 and became effective in 1975. In the 1980's, the state suffered from a depression in the oil industry. In 1991, casino gambling was legalized in selected areas and video poker was legalized statewide. In 1996, however, half the parishes in the state banned video poker machines.
In August, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. It killed more than 1,500 people in Louisiana and caused widespread damage. New Orleans was particularly hard-hit.