Louisiana ( ) was a province of New Spain from 1762 to 1801. It was primarily located in the center of North America encompassing the western basin of the Mississippi River plus New Orleans. The area had originally been claimed and controlled by France, which had named it La Louisiane in honor of King Louis XIV in 1682. Spain secretly acquired the territory from France near the end of the Seven Years' War by the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762). The actual transfer of authority of the city of New Orleans was gradual. When Spain finally attempted to fully replace the city's French authorities in 1767, French residents staged an uprising, which the new Spanish colonial governor did not suppress until 1769. Spain also took possession of the trading post of St. Louis and all of Upper Louisiana in the late 1760s, though there was little Spanish presence in the wide expanses of what they called the "Illinois Country".
New Orleans was the main port of entry for Spanish supplies sent to American forces during the American Revolution, and Spain and the new United States disputed the borders of Louisiana and navigation rights on the Mississippi River for the duration of Spain's rule in the colony. New Orleans was devastated by large fires in 1788 and 1794 which destroyed most of the original wooden buildings in what is today the French Quarter. New construction was done in the Spanish style with stone walls and slate roofs, and new public buildings constructed during the city's Spanish period include several still standing today such as the St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Presbytere.
Louisiana was later and briefly retroceded back to France under the terms of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800) and the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801). In 1802, King Charles IV of Spain published a royal bill on 14 October, effecting the transfer and outlining the conditions. Spain agreed to continue administering the colony until French officials arrived and formalized the transfer. After several delays, the official transfer of ownership took place at the Cabildo in New Orleans on 30 November 1803. Three weeks later on 20 December, another ceremony was held at the same location in which France transferred New Orleans and the surrounding area to the United States pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase. A transfer ceremony of Upper Louisiana to France and then to the United States took place on Three Flags Day in St. Louis. It encompassed a series of ceremonies held over two days: 9–10 March 1804.
History Spanish exploration The Spanish were the first known Europeans to discover the Mississippi Delta during the expedition of Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519. The Narváez expedition left Cuba in 1528 and met several disasters as it sailed along the Gulf Coast between Florida and Texas (Galveston Island), ending in the fall of 1528 with only four survivors: Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, an enslaved Moor named Estevanico, and two other Spaniards. During the next eight years, Cabeza de Vaca traveled across what is now the U.S. southwest, including the coast of Louisiana (his book Naufragios y comentarios recounts this adventureThe Account: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's Relacion, title of 1993 English translation by Martin Favata and Jose Fernandez of the work of Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios y comentarios ("Shipwrecks and Commentaries").). He reconnected with Spanish civilization in Mexico City in 1536.
Long before France began exploring this area and creating the colony of New France, the Spanish had already explored the Mississippi River (which they called "Río del Espíritu Santo") and its vast basin from La Florida. Hernando de Soto claimed the Mississippi Basin for Spain in 1538. Spanish Captain Luis de Moscoso de Alvarado reached the territory of the Natchitoches (also called Nachistochis by the Spanish) in 1542 and then went on to Texas. Shortly before, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's expedition left Mexico in search of the Seven Golden Cities and the Great Quivira (1540-1542). In October 1541, he crossed the plateau he called Llano Estacado, explored the vast prairies (Great Plains) of the territory he named "Cíbola" or "Llanos de Cíbola" (due to the abundance of cíbolos or American bison) or "Llanos del Cubo", perhaps a distortion of the original Spanish name. He reached, from the north, approximately Uachita in today's Ouachita County (Arkansas) and, from the east, to Kansas. In 1601, from the already Hispanic Texas (or Tejas) and New Mexico, Juan de Oñate and his Spanish troops entered the Great Plains area, almost reaching the city of natives whom the Spanish nicknamed Rayados due to the stripe tattoos from their eyes to their ears that these natives (the Wichita) wore. Oñate's forces nearly reached the city of Etnazoa, which perhaps had a huge population of 20,000 inhabitants in today's Arkansas City. However, the few troops led by Oñate had to retreat due to indigenous hostility and not finding any trace of gold or other typical riches of mercantile capitalism.
French exploration Starting in 1673, the French, originating from their colonies in New France (present-day Quebec and Acadia, Canada), began to explore the Mississippi River and claimed the territory for France.
The first French settlers explored the new territories of the Mississippi Basin from the Great Lakes (which they reached via the St. Lawrence River). They undertook canoe journeys that lasted about five to six weeks, aided by the downstream currents of the Mississippi River. In this manner, they traveled from Montreal to Fort Michilimackinac and Grand Portage, a route which included about 50 smaller portages or carryovers. They could also access the territory via the Ohio River (Ujayu), a more accessible and easy route to travel from Montreal to New Orleans during the time of New France. River navigation was relatively swift when going downstream (it took approximately 15 days to travel from the Ohio Basin to New Orleans) but going upstream, or against the current, from New Orleans, took almost three months. The navigation technique of the time only allowed for a speed of about . Upstream navigation improved only with the advent of steamboats in the second half of the 19th century, known as steamers. The three existing routes from New Orleans to Upper Louisiana were challenging and full of hazards. This might explain, in part, why the French were able to maintain the territory's integrity for over 80 years and the Spanish for 40 years.
French colonization In 1682, the region was named French Louisiana (la Louisiane Française) in honor of Louis XIV, King of France, and was incorporated into New France as an administrative district. It stretched from the Upper Mississippi watershed to the Gulf of Mexico and was first settled from the North.
In 1718, New Orleans was founded, which would become the most important city in the territory and its capital in 1723.
Spain entered the Seven Years' War in support of France, near its conclusion. King Charles III asked the French king to hand over Louisiana to Spain in exchange for Spain's support, which was accepted in the Treaty of Fontainebleau of 1762. However, the war turned out unfavorable for Spain, and Great Britain seized the Floridas. At the end of the war, the Treaty of Paris of 1763 was signed, acknowledging that Great Britain received the Floridas from Spain. To balance Spain's loss of the Floridas, it gained most of what had been French Louisiana (Upper French Louisiana was split with Britain at the Mississippi River, with the west going to Spain).
In the same Treaty of Paris of 1763, France handed over New France (Quebec and Acadia, today Canada) and the eastern Illinois Country to Great Britain. Until then, the fortress known as Fort de Chartres had served as the center of French administration in the region.
The British were slow in establishing regiments in their part of the newly acquired Illinois Country (Pays des Illinois). However, on October 10, 1765, a small detachment of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment under the command of Captain Thomas Stirling took control of the Fort Chartres fortress and its surroundings. French settlers were ordered to leave or obtain a special license to stay. Many French settlers moved across the river to St. Louis (Missouri), then under Spanish rule. One of the three founding partners was Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, who would become the father-in-law of the governors of Louisiana, Luis de Unzaga y Amézaga and later also Bernardo de Gálvez.
Geography
Spanish Louisiana stretched from the Gulf of Mexico's Coastal Plain and the areas adjacent to the Mississippi Delta to Canada's border. From east to west, it covered the left basin of the Mississippi up to the Rocky Mountains in northeastern Colorado and the Mountain region, thus covering a large part of the Midwest. It spanned an area of , including all or parts of more than ten current U.S. states.
The population of this vast Spanish territory was estimated to be 125,000 people in 1785. This population was concentrated along the main – and to a lesser extent, secondary – rivers and watercourses such as the Mississippi River, the Red River, and the Missouri River. Demographic movements developed along these rivers and the Ohio River, which, located in the Illinois Country, had already been subjected to Britain after the British Empire defeated the French Empire in the 18th century. By the time Spain received Louisiana, indigenous Sioux (called Siuxes by the Spanish) or Cheyennes populations were estimated to be about 30,000 in Upper Louisiana, primarily in Minnesota.
Ecologically, the vast territory of Spanish Louisiana corresponded to most of what is now called the Midwest and included the following biomes: The Great Plains, largely consisting of expansive flat and gently rolling prairies roamed by herds of millions of massive American bison or cíbolos. These prairies or great plains, covered with tall grasslands (up to 6 feet high) with deep and extensive roots, were located west of the western forests and north of the Cross Timbers, a wooded region primarily composed of deciduous trees. It continued about west of the Mississippi River from the dense mixed temperate forests that populated the eastern area of North America from the North Atlantic Ocean until the 19th century. These forests were cleared by American settlers after 1803; many forests in Lower Louisiana and The Floridas not only grew in flooded areas but also had foliage covered with Spanish moss, forming natural serpentine hanging from the branches down to the watery ground. In the far west and north, the great prairies entered an ecotone often covered by coniferous forests, especially in the west where the mountainous relief began.
Except for areas near the Gulf of Mexico which have a subtropical climate, most of the territory (The Great Plains) has a continental climate with warm summers and very cold winters. These plains allow the alternation of warm fronts from the south and icy fronts from the north, causing Spanish Louisiana's core to experience frequent tornadoes and lighting storms, especially in Oklahoma. As for the areas adjacent to the gulf, they occasionally suffer from hurricanes from the southwest that reach important southern cities like New Orleans.
Spanish government