History of Louisiana

The history of  is long and rich. From its earliest settlement to its status as linchpin of an empire to its incorporation as a U.S. state, it has been successively bathed in the cultural influences of, , the , and the , and has subsequently developed a rich and unique creolization of cultures.

Early settlement
Louisiana was inhabited by when European explorers arrived in the 17th century. Many current place names in the state, including, Natchitouches (now spelled ), , , , and (as ), are transliterations of those used in various Native American dialects.

Many native tribes inhabited the region (using current parish boundaries to describe approximate locations):
 * The ' in southwestern Louisiana in Vermilion, Cameron, Lafayette, Acadia, Jefferson Davis, and Calcasieu parishes. They were allied with the ' in St. Landry parish.
 * The ' in St. Tammany parish. They were allied with the ' in Tangipahoa parish.
 * The ' in the southeastern parishes of Iberia, Assumption, St. Mary, lower St. Martin, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines. They were allied with the ' in Assumption parish, the ' in Terrebonne parish, and the ' to the east.
 * The ', part of the ' nation, in areas directly north of the Chitimachas in the parishes of St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Washington, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Livingston, and St. Tammany. They were allied with the '-' in St. Tammany parish.
 * The , also part of the Choctaw nation, in East and West Feliciana, and Pointe Coupee parishes (about 100 miles (160 km) north of the town named for them).
 * The  in Pointe Coupee parish.
 * The ', part of the ' nation, in parts of Avoyelles and Concordia parishes along the Mississippi River.
 * The , also part of the Natchez nation, in northeastern Louisiana particularly Tensas parish.
 * The  in northeastern parishes of Tensas, Madison, East Carroll and West Carroll.
 * The  in East Carroll parish.
 * The remainder of central, west central, and northwest Louisiana was home to a substantial portion of the ' nation, the ' in Natchitoches parish, and ' confederacy consisting of the Natchitoches in Natchitoches parish, ' and ' in the Caddo and Bossier parishes, ' in Natchitoches parish, and  in the Caldwell parish.

French exploration and colonization (1528-1756)
The first explorers to visit Louisiana came in 1528. The expedition (led by ) located the head of the. In 1541, 's expedition crossed the region. Then Spanish interest in Louisiana lay dormant. In the late 17th century, expeditions, which included sovereign, religious and commercial aims, established a foothold on the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. With its first settlements, France lay claim to a vast region of North America and set out to establish a commercial empire and French nation stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.

The French explorer named the region Louisiana to honor  in 1682. The first permanent settlement, Fort Maurepas (at what is now, near ), was founded by , a French military officer from Canada, in 1699.

The originally claimed all the land on both sides of the  and north to French territory in. The following present day states were part of the then vast tract of Louisiana: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

The settlement of (along the Red River in present-day northwest Louisiana) was established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, making it the oldest permanent settlement in the territory that then composed the Louisiana colony. The French settlement had two purposes: to establish trade with the Spanish in, and to deter Spanish advances into Louisiana. Also, the northern terminus of the Old San Antonio Road (sometimes called El Camino Real, or Kings Highway) was at Nachitoches. The settlement soon became a flourishing river port and crossroads, giving rise to vast cotton kingdoms along the river. Over time, planters developed large plantations and built fine homes in a growing town, a pattern repeated in New Orleans and other places.

Louisiana's French settlements contributed to further exploration and outposts. They were concentrated along the banks of the Mississippi and its major tributaries, from Louisiana to as far north as the region called the, near and present-day.

Initially and  functioned in succession as the capital of the colony. In, recognizing the importance of the Mississippi River to trade and military interests, France made the seat of civilian and military authority.

Settlement in the Louisiana colony was not exclusively French; in the 1720s, German immigrants settled along the Mississippi River in a region referred to as the.

Due to historical and administrative ties between France and Senegal, "Two-thirds of the slaves brought to Louisiana by the French slave trade came from Senegambia." This region between the Senegal and Gambia rivers had peoples who were closely related through history: three of the principal languages, Sereer, Wolof and Pulaar were related, and Malinke, spoken by the Mande people to the east, was "mutually intelligible" with them. This concentration of peoples from one region of Africa strongly shaped Louisiana Creole culture.

Spanish interregnum (1763-1800)
Most of the territory to the east of the Mississippi was lost to the in the, except for the area around  and the parishes around. The rest of Louisiana became a possession of after the  by the  of 1763.

Despite the fact that it was the Spanish government that now ruled Louisiana, the pace of francophone immigration to the territory increased swiftly, due to another significant aftereffect of the French and Indian War. Several thousand French-speaking refugees from the region of (now, ) made their way to Louisiana after being expelled from their home territory by the newly ascendant British. They settled chiefly in the southwestern Louisiana region now called. The Acadian refugees were welcomed by the Spanish, and descendants came to be called s.

Some Spanish-speaking immigrants arrived also, Canary Islanders, called. They immigrated to Louisiana between 1778 and 1783.

Both free and enslaved populations increased rapidly during the years of Spanish rule, as new settlers and Creoles imported large numbers of slaves to work on plantations. Although some American settlers brought slaves with them who were native to Virginia or North Carolina, the Pointe Coupee inventories showed that most slaves brought by traders came directly from Africa. In 1763 settlements from New Orleans to Pointe Coupee (north of Baton Rouge) included 3,654 free persons and 4,598 slaves. By the 1800 census, which included West Florida, there were 19,852 free persons and 24,264 slaves in Lower Louisiana. Although the censuses do not always cover the same territory, they show a majority of slaves in the population throughout these years. Records during Spanish rule were not as well documented as with the French slave trade, so it is difficult to trace more specific origins of African slaves. The overall numbers, though, resulted in what historian Gwendolyn Midlo Hall called "the re-Africanization" of Lower Louisiana, which strongly influenced the culture.

In 1800, France's reacquired Louisiana from Spain in the, an arrangement kept secret for some two years. Documents have revealed that he harbored secret ambitions to reconstruct a large colonial empire in. This notion faltered, however, after the French attempt to reconquer after its  ended in failure.

Annexation and incorporation into the United States (1803-1850)
As a result of his setbacks in Haiti, Bonaparte gave up his dreams of American empire and sold the Louisiana to the United States, which subsequently divided it into two territories: the (which became the state of Louisiana in 1812) and the  (which consisted of all the land not included in Orleans Territory). The were annexed from the short-lived and strategically important  Republic by proclamation of President  in 1810.

The western boundary of Louisiana with Spanish Texas remained in dispute until the in 1819, with the  serving as a neutral buffer zone as well as a haven for criminals. Also called "No Man's Land," this part of central and southwestern Louisiana was settled in part by a mixed-race people known as, whose origins are the subject of ongoing debate.

Secession and the Civil War (1850-1865)
With its plantation economy, Louisiana was a state that generated wealth from the labor of and trade in enslaved African Americans. It also had one of the largest free black populations in the United States, totaling 18,647 people in 1860. Most of the free blacks were found in the New Orleans region and southern part of the state. According to the 1860 census, 331,726 people, or nearly 47% of the total population of 708,002, was enslaved.

Construction and elaboration of the levee system was critical to the state's ability to cultivate export crops, especially cotton and sugar cane. Enslaved Africans built the first levees; later levees were expanded, heightened and added to mostly by enslaved African Americans. As the 19th century progressed, the states took over directing levee construction. By 1860 African Americans in Louisiana had built 740 miles of levees on the Mississippi River and another 450 miles of levees on its outlets. These immense earthworks were built mostly by hand.

Enfranchised elite whites' strong economic interest in maintaining the slave system contributed to Louisiana's decision to secede from the union. It followed other Southern states in seceding after the election of as. Louisiana's secession was announced on, , and it became part of the.

The state was quickly defeated in the, a result of Union strategy to cut the Confederacy in two by seizing the Mississippi. Federal troops captured New Orleans on,. Because a large part of the population had Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the Federal government took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana under Federal control as a state within the Union, with its own elected representatives to the.

Reconstruction and segregation (1865-1929)
Following the Civil War much of the South, including Louisiana, was placed under the supervision of military governors under northern command. Louisiana was grouped with in what was administered as the. Under this period of, the slaves were freed and given suffrage. African Americans began to live as citizens with aome measure of equality before the law, a status they would not regain for nearly another century.

As Reconstruction came to a close, whites who opposed the outcome of the war in terms of power changes regained control of the state and imposed institutionalized forms of racial discrimination. Violence was used to intimidate African Americans, discourage them from voting, and limit their movement. The state completed disfranchisement around the turn of the century by instituting literacy and poll taxes aimed against them. African Americans had taxation without representation until they achieved voting and civil rights due to their efforts in the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century. The notable 19th c. Supreme Court decision , which determined that segregation could be legal so long as it did not (purportedly) result in inequality, originated in a case in Louisiana. In the early decades of the 20th century, thousands of African Americans left Louisiana in the north to industrial cities seek better job and living opportunities.

The Great Depression (1929-1941)
During some of the Louisiana was led by Governor. He was elected to office on populist appeal. Though popular for his public works projects, which promised to improve most Louisianans' social welfare, Long was criticized for his allegedly demogogic and autocratic style. He extended control through every branch of Louisiana's state government. Especially controversial were his plans for wealth redistribution in the state. Long's career ended with his assassination in.

The battle for Civil Rights (1950-1970)
Patterns of segregation against  still ruled in Louisiana by the. This changed only in the course of the national and restoration of voting rights in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Katrina and its aftermath (2005-present)
In,  and many other low-lying parts of the state along the  were hit by the catastrophic , which caused widespread damage due to large-scale flooding of more than 80% of the city and nearby parishes when levees were breached. Warnings of the hurricane prompted the evacuation of New Orleans and other areas, but tens of thousands of people were left behind and stranded by the floodwaters. Cut off in many cases from healthy food, medicine or water, or assembled in public spaces without functioning emergency services, more than 1500 people in New Orleans died in the aftermath. Government at all levels had failed to prepare adequately despite severe hurricane warnings, and emergency responses were slow. The state faced a humanitarian crisis stemming from conditions in many locations, especially the city of New Orleans, and the large tide of refugees. Subsequent reconstruction and repatriation has so far been slow and generally limited to the state's wealthiest citizens.