History History

The Spaniard Alonso Alvarez de Pineda was the first known European to reach the Mississippi. He was also the first to map present-day Texas and part of the Gulf Coast.

Hernando de Soto, Spanish conquistador and explorer, was the first to document the discovery of the Mississippi River, which he explored to its mouth.

By decision of Louis XIV, New France became a French province attached to the royal domain. The colony of Louisiana did not yet exist, however.

Motivated by scientific curiosity, commercial concerns and evangelism, the French explored the heart of the continent.

Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, takes possession of the Mississippi Valley, which he names Louisiana in honour of Louis XIV.

Born in Rouen, he left for Montreal in 1667 and then set out to explore the Great Lakes, particularly lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Michigan. In the winter of 1681-1682, during his^second voyage of exploration, he undertook to follow the course of the Mississippi to its mouth. On April 9, 1682, he took possession, in the name of France, of this immense territory located between the St. Lawrence River valley and the Mississippi River delta and named it Louisiana. He was murdered during a mutiny in 1687, near Navasota in the present-day state of Texas.

Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the colony of Louisiana and the towns of Biloxi (in present-day Mississippi) and Mobile (in present-day Alabama). Exploring the river, Le Moyne encounters Indians who mark their territory with red-painted posts, thus naming the area "Bâton Rouge", today the capital of Louisiana.

There are three kinds of French in Louisiana: the French spoken by the upper class, the planters, the French or Quebec priests who know how to write it but very rarely do, and the French of the Cajuns and the black community.

Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis establishes Fort Saint-Jean-Baptiste at Natchitoches. It was the first permanent European settlement founded in the territory included in the LouisianaPurchase.

New Orleans was founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville and named after Philippe d'Orléans.

First shipment of black slaves to Louisiana.

In 1755, the British colonel Sir Charles Lawrence ordered the deportation of the Acadians, farmers from Poitou, Touraine and Berry, who had been settled around the Bay of Fundy (present-day Nova Scotia) since 1604. In their place, he planned to settle English farmers: the Great Upheaval, which took place from 1755 to 1763, affected more than 10,000 Acadians. Many of them would later settle in Louisiana.
At the end of the Treaty of Paris, Louis XV ceded the territories west of the Mississippi and New Orleans to Spain and those east of the river to Great Britain.

Two fires destroyed nearly 80% of New Orleans, including the French Quarter and its buildings built at the time of the French colonization. The Spanish government at the time undertook the reconstruction work making this neighborhood unique.

His history and origins remain a mystery. He was born in 1792 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) to a Spanish Jewish mother and a French father. Corsair, smuggler, pirate, leader of the Baratarians, he was also a merchant, shipowner and slave trader. Officially, he ran a blacksmith shop with his brother in New Orleans, and frequented the Café des Réfugiés and the Maspéro. A local figure, he was invited to the homes of the richest planters and merchants. During the War of 1813, he fought alongside General Andrew Jackson to defend his adopted country, despite American attacks on his personal fleet in New Orleans. The famous pirate also maintained a correspondence with the great philosophers Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. He even financed the Communist Manifesto... Like his origins, his end remains shrouded in mystery. Did he die in Mexico in 1826 or in Illinois in 1847? Yul Brynner played the character of this mythical pirate on screen - with Charlton Heston as General Jackson - in Anthony Quinn's film The Buccaneers.

Spain returns Louisiana to France through the secret treaty of San Ildefonso.

Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States for $15 million.

The Anglo-American War broke out and was concluded by the signing of the peace treaty in Ghent, which restored the status quo.
In 1812, Louisiana joined the Union and became the 18th state. It also adopted its first Constitution. Then in 1815, during the Battle of New Orleans, the British failed against the troops of Andrew Jackson. This victory established American supremacy and closed the War of Independence.

First Mardi Gras street parade in New Orleans.

Baton Rouge became the state capital.

Epidemics of yellow fever follow one another, killing thousands of people.

Louisiana was the sixth state to secede and was divided with the Confederates in the west and the Union in New Orleans.

The Union advanced westward and took Port Hudson from the Confederates who were defeated in 1865, paving the way for the abolition of slavery.

The new Louisiana Constitution put an end to bilingualism. English became the official language and no school taught French. The Cajuns were banished from Louisiana society.

Louisiana was placed under military government by the Union. It did not rejoin the Union until it had a new Constitution.

Louisiana's first oil field is discovered six miles from Jennings in Jefferson Parish.

With compulsory and free schooling for all, the Cajuns obediently sent their children to school where they became English-speaking, the use of French being formally forbidden in class from 1921 by section 12 of the new Constitution.

The GreatFlood- the worst in U.S. history - devastates 70,000 square miles and leaves hundreds of thousands homeless in several states.

Governor Huey P. Long established many social measures. Despite strong support from the very poor population, he was very controversial and was assassinated in 1935.

Hurricane Audrey destroys southwestern Louisiana and kills over 400 people.

Hurricane Betsy, nicknamed Billion-Dollar Betsy. Water from Lake Pontchartrain blew into many neighborhoods including the Lower Ninth Ward. 76 residents drowned.

French was finally readmitted to the schools, and the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) was created. At the origin of this association, a lawyer and former member of Congress, James Domengeaux, who invested his money and energy to save French in Louisiana. He came to Paris to ask President Georges Pompidou for teachers.

Louisiana's oil-based economy collapses in the wake of the Great Depression. Louisiana became one of the poorest states in the country.

Hurricane Andrew passed over central Louisiana, killing more than a dozen people and leaving more than 200,000 without power. Thousands of dollars worth of crops were destroyed.

Hurricane Georges approached very close to the New Orleans city limits, only to turn towards the eastern states at the last moment. The Lake Pontchartrain area suffered considerable damage.

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is elected governor, becoming Louisiana's first woman governor.
Federally funded bilingual programs are continued. French is no longer just taught, but is now used as the medium of instruction for certain subjects.

August 29: Hurricane Katrina destroys Southeast Louisiana. The city is closed until October. It is estimated that more than 2 million people in the Gulf region have been evacuated.
24 September: Hurricane Rita passes over southwest Louisiana and floods part of New Orleans for the second time.

Almost three years to the day after Katrina, Hurricane Gustav arrived in Cocodrie and turned into a very large tropical storm, causing a lot of damage throughout Southern Louisiana.

The New Orleans Saints, the Louisiana football team, wins the Superbowl.
Less than two months later, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig causes an unprecedented oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The coasts and bayous of Louisiana are soiled.

On August 27, Barack Obama visits the Treme neighborhood to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of Katrina.

In August, torrential rains hit Louisiana, causing unprecedented flooding.

New Orleans celebrates the tercentenary of its founding.
In November, African-American politician LaToya Cantrell becomes mayor of New Orleans, the first woman to hold the position.

Louisiana passes an anti-abortion law banning abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected (i.e., at six weeks of pregnancy).
In April, three African-American churches are burned in St. Landry Parish. A 21-year-old man is indicted.
In mid-July, Hurricane Barry, eventually downgraded to a tropical storm, causes extensive flooding in the southern part of the state.

Mardi Gras parades are cancelled while the carnival is already underway, following the death of two people crushed by floats.
Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta hit Louisiana. The southwest was particularly hard hit by the first two, especially Cameron and Lake Charles.

Mardi Gras festivities are taking on a more virtual air because of the pandemic. However, New Orleans residents are having a ball decorating their homes, often extravagantly.
16 years to the day after Katrina, Hurricane Ida hit southeast Louisiana. It was the most powerful hurricane to hit Louisiana, wiping out some communities, including Grand Isle.

Voluntary interruption of pregnancy is now prohibited in Louisiana, even in cases of incest or rape.

In December 2022, Emmanuel Macron visits New Orleans for the Semaine de la Francophonie. There are some 250,000 French speakers in Louisiana.