1699 - French Louisiana
Nearly 2,500 years ago, Chitimacha, Houma, and other American Indian tribes populated the Mississippi Delta. These peoples had broad-based economies, permanent settlements, and seasonal camps that utilized the full range of environments and resources of the diverse and fertile region.
By the late 17th century, Europeans began to explore and settle the area. The new arrivals and their enslaved African servants changed the delta landscape with the insertion of plantation fields, artificial levees, logging canals, trappers’ ditches and an array of new building styles. By 1699, France declared this region the Louisiana colony. This powerful, new European presence had a great impact on the area’s religion, art, music, food, law, architecture, and language.
In 1718, the French established New Orleans on the Mississippi River. Nouvelle Orleans was laid out in a neat grid, which is still reflected in the current city. The downtown core is filled with a vast array of historic buildings reflecting a variety of cultural influences.
The French presence in Louisiana and along the Mississippi-Missouri-Arkansas river drainages complicated Spanish-Indian relations in east Texas. By trading horses and guns and intermarrying with natives, the French had upset the balance of power among Plains tribes. By the first decade of the 18th century, the Spaniards had realized the French impact on their positions south of the Río Grande. Unlike the French, the Spaniards had been reluctant to supply their native allies with horses and guns. The Spanish comprehended the impact of the French arms race too late to form military alliances with the tribes north of the Río Grande.
The Spanish response was twofold: the establishment of a military presence among the tribes along a line forming the French southernmost advance in east Texas near Louisiana, and the founding of a mission field in east Texas along the river drainages southwest of Los Adaes Presidio, which the Spanish had constructed near Natchitoches, Louisiana.
The complex interconnections between the great power rivalry in Europe and competition in North America was perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the battle for control of Pensacola. The Spanish saw the French colony of Louisiana as a threat to their strategic outpost in Pensacola, particularly after August 1717, when the French Compagnie des Indes assumed authority over Louisiana. In Spain’s view, the French were violating Spanish territory and posing a direct threat to Mexico. After war broke out in Europe between France and Spain over alleged Spanish designs on Italy, French forces operating from Ile Dauphin, just south of present-day Mobile, seized Pensacola in May 1719. In August that year the Spanish launched a counterattack with a large naval force from Havana, but were unable to dislodge the French.
The French reluctantly agreed to return Pensacola to the Spanish in 1722, as part of a diplomatic settlement in which France, Spain, Great Britain, and the Holy Roman Empire formed what became known as the Quadruple Alliance. France and Spain agreed to respect and protect each other’s colonial possessions throughout the world. Despite this outward rapprochement and their mutual wariness of British designs on North America, the two powers continued to view each other with considerable mistrust for years to come.
The Spanish gained control from France of New Orleans and the area west of the Mississippi River at the end of the Seven Years War, making it part of New Spain in 1764. A Spanish governor arrived in 1766. The Spanish are responsible for much of the character and flavor of the Vieux Carré. Many of the 18th century buildings in New Orleans are in the Spanish style made of brick with courtyards and iron balconies.
Three of the most impressive buildings -- St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Presbytere-- date from the 18th century when the Spanish controlled the city. At the heart of the Vieux Carre on Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States. Flanking the cathedral on one side, the Cabildo, once the seat of the Spanish colonial government, is now part of the Louisiana State Museum. The matching Presbytere on the other side of the cathedral is also part of the museum. Both buildings are largely Spanish in design but have added French mansard roofs.
In 1795, Spain granted the United States "Right of Deposit" in New Orleans, allowing Americans to use the city's port facilities. In 1800, Spain and France signed the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso stipulating that Spain give Louisiana back to France, though it had to remain under Spanish control as long as France wished to postpone the transfer of power. Napolean delayed taking possession of Louisiana for he wanted time to build a military force strong enough to protect the territory from the Americans and the British. France did not take formal possession of Louisiana until November 30, 1803, but only for a short time. The United States took control of the colony on December 20, 1803 through the Louisiana Purchase.
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