US Southern Colonies French

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• Spanish Louisiana before French Louisiana

Related Project

First Families of Louisiana Louisiana Families is a project focused on developing profiles and family groups in Louisiana. Our primary goal is to encourage everyone on Wikitree to find and connect with their cousins in Louisiana and by reviewing the profiles developed learn a little about Louisiana history.

Colony Origin/History

Louisiana (including the western Mississippi river basin and the Missouri River basin). Louisiana (Spanish: Luisiana, French: La Louisiane) was the name of an administrative district of the Vice-royalty of New Spain from 1762 to 1802 that represented territory west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans. Spain acquired the territory from France, who had named it La Louisiane in honor of their king Louis XIV in 1682. 1802. Source: Wikipedia, 2 Sept 2014.

Louisiana was divided into two regions, known as Upper Louisiana (French: Haute-Louisiane), which began north of the Arkansas River, and Lower Louisiana (French: Basse-Louisiane). The present-day U.S. state of Louisiana is named for the historical region, although it occupies only a small portion of the territory claimed by the French.

DeSoto claiming the Mississippi as depicted in the United States capitol rotunda Louisiana (Spanish: Luisiana, French: La Louisiane) was the name of an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1762 to 1802 that represented territory west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans. Spain acquired the territory from France, who had named it La Louisiane in honor of their king Louis XIV in 1682.

History

Spain was largely a benign absentee landlord administering it from Havana, Cuba and contracting out governing to people from many nationalities as long as they swore allegiance to Spain. During the American War of Independence, the Spanish funneled their supplies to the American revolutionists through New Orleans and the vast Louisiana territory beyond.

Although only maintaining it for 40 years, the Spanish were largely responsible for establishing much of the character of New Orleans and Louisiana that is normally associated with the French. For instance, the buildings in the "French Quarter" of New Orleans are actually Spanish colonial era constructions. Also, Spanish control of the region continued and strengthened the Catholic influence that had begun with the French.

Upper and Lower

The Spanish divided Louisiana into Upper Louisiana and Lower Louisiana at 36° 35' North, at about the latitude of New Madrid.[1] This was a higher latitude than the French, for whom Lower Louisiana was the area south of about 31° North (the current boundary of the State of Louisiana) or the area south of where the Arkansas River joined the Mississippi at about 33° 46' North latitude.

Timeline

Spanish Exploration 1541 – Hernando de Soto, exploring from Florida, claimed the Mississippi and all its tributaries for the Spanish crown. 1541 – Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, exploring from Mexico for the Seven Cities of Gold, reached Lindsborg, Kansas.

French Control 1673 – Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet began the exploration of the Mississippi descending from modern day Canada, and the French began to exert influence and claims over the territory. 1699 – Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, started the first French settlement, at Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi). 1702 – Bienville moved French settlements to Dauphin Island and, in January, established Mobile colony, with Fort Louis at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff (up the Mobile River). 1714 – Natchitoches was established by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis as part of French Louisiana; the community was named after the Natchitoches Indian tribe. The City of Natchitoches is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase. 1718 – Bienville started construction of New Orleans, to move the capital of French Louisiana from Dauphin Island and Biloxi to the Mississippi River crescent, considered safer during hurricane tides. 1720 – The Spanish Villasur expedition, coming from Mexico, was slaughtered near Columbus, Nebraska, by Pawnees friendly to the French. 1723 – New Orleans became the third capital of French Louisiana. 1724 – Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, held a council with the Commanche to resist Spanish expeditions coming from Mexico. 1754 – France and Great Britain began the French and Indian War. 1760 – Britain effectively controlled all of the French colonies in Quebec. 1761 – Spain sided with France in the expanded Seven Years' War.

Spanish Control Cabildo Calle de San Luis en New Orleans

St. Louis Cathedral1762 – As negotiations began to end the Seven Years' War, Louis XV of France secretly proposed to his cousin Charles III of Spain that France give Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. 1763 – The Treaty of Paris ended the war, with a provision in which France ceded all territory east of the Mississippi (including Canada) to Britain. Spain ceded Florida and land east of the Mississippi (including Baton Rouge, Louisiana) to Britain. 1763 – George III of the United Kingdom, in the Royal Proclamation of 1763, proclaimed that all land east of the Mississippi acquired in the war – with the exception of East Florida, West Florida and Quebec – would become an Indian Reserve. 1763 – The Acadian (Cajun) migration began, with French settlers from Quebec and settlers on the east side of the Mississippi who had been ordered to leave the new Indian Reserve migrating to Louisiana, which they believed was still French controlled land west of the Mississippi as well as New Orleans 1764 – Pierre Laclede established the Maxent and Laclede Company trading post at St. Louis, Missouri. 1764 – Spain's acquisition of Louisiana from France was formally announced. 1765 – Joseph Broussard led the first group of nearly 200 Acadians to settle on Bayou Teche below present-day St. Martinville, Louisiana.[2] 1768 – Antonio de Ulloa became the first Spanish governor of Louisiana. He did not fly the Spanish flag and was forced to leave by a pro-French mob in the Rebellion of 1768. 1769 – Alejandro O'Reilly suppressed the rebellion, executed its leaders and sent some plotters to prison in Morro Castle in Havana. He was otherwise benign and forgave other plotters as long as they swore allegiance to Spain. He established Spanish law and the cabildo of New Orleans. 1770 – Luis de Unzaga started the era of benign Spanish rule and freed the imprisoned plotters. 1770 – Spain began an administrative of process of governing Upper Louisiana with lieutenant governors. 1779 – Spanish settlers lead by Francisco Bouligny founded Nueva Iberia along Bayou Teche. 1779 – Spain declared war on Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War and began the West Indies and Gulf Coast campaigns. 1780 – The Battle of Saint Louis was the only battle west of the Mississippi in the war. 1781 – The Spanish completed their reconquest of Florida in the Battle of Pensacola. 1783 – The Treaty of Paris officially returned control of Florida to Spain. 1788 – The Great New Orleans Fire destroyed virtually all of New Orleans. Governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró was a hero for his relief efforts. 1789 – Work on rebuilding New Orleans began, including what is now the French Quarter. The new structures had courtyards and stone walls. The cornerstone for the new St. Louis Cathedral was laid. 1795 – Pinckney's Treaty settled boundary disputes with the United States and recognized its right to navigate through New Orleans. 1795 – Spain began a series of scientific explorations of the Missouri River, including the MacKay and Evans Expedition. 1798 – Spain revoked the United States' right to travel through New Orleans. 1799 – The newly rebuilt Cabildo opened.

French Control 1800 – In the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, Napoleon secretly acquired the territory, but Spain continued to administer it. 1801 – The United States was permitted again to use the port of New Orleans. 1803 – The purchase of Louisiana by the United States was announced. 1803 – Spain refused Lewis and Clark permission to travel up the Missouri River, since the transfer from France to the United States had not been made official; they spent the winter in Illinois at Camp Dubois. 1804 – France officially took control in November 1803, but word was not conveyed to St. Louis until 1804 on Three Flags Day. SOURCE: Wikipedia 2 Sept 2014

Government Structure

Original Structure

Evolution of Government Structure

Settlers

Migrating From the Northern Colonies

Ships

American Indians

Indentured Servants

Slaves

Economic Resources and Information

NOTE: Relevant to the individual colony

Conflicts Within The Colony

NOTE: From the establishment of the colony until the inclusion in the USA.

• Louisiana Rebellion of 1768

Research Resources

Spanish Records: Locating Anglo and Latin Ancestry in the Colonial Southeast. by Mills, Elizabeth Shown. National Genealogical Society Quarterly 73 (December 1985): 243–61. Digital image. Elizabeth Shown Mills, Historic Pathways

Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas 1576-1803, published by the University of Notre Dame archives under the sponsorship of the National Historical Publications Commission.

There are numerous other collections both in the United States and in foreign countries which pertain to the ecclesiastical as well as to the secular history of colonial Louisiana.

References to these collections may be found in Philip M. Hamer's Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States (Yale University Press, 1961), the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, Roger Baudier's The Catholic Church in Louisiana (New Orleans, 1939), Jean Delanglez's The French Jesuits in Lower Louisiana (1700-1763) (Loyola University of New Orleans, 1935), Charles Edwards O'Neill's Church and State in French Colonial Louisiana: Policy and Politics to 1732 (Yale University Press, 1966),

James Alexander Robertson's two-volume edition, Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States 1785-1807 (Cleveland, 1911), and a recently published collection of items edited by Jack D.L. Holmes, Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de la Luisiana 1792-1810 (Madrid, 1963), which forms volume XV in the Coleccion Chimalistac de Libros y Documentos acerca de la Nueva Espana.

Bureau of Land Management(BLM), General Land Office (GLO) Records Automation web site

Documents relating to Spanish grants, in Louisiana Published 1835. Library of Congress

USGenWeb Project Louisiana Archives

KnowLA; Encyclopedia of Louisiana

LOUISana Digital Library The LOUISiana Digital Library (LDL) is an online library of materials from Louisiana institutions. The LDL contains photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, oral histories, and more that document Louisiana's unique history and culture.

Loyola University: A-Z Resources

The Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies

Tulane University Special Collections

Louisiana Genealogy Materials, Louisiana State University

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore

Creole Heritage Center, Genealogy Department, National Creole Family History Database, Northwestern State University, Natchitoches, LA

WikiTree Resources

Chronicles of New France. A free space page by George Blanchard, who is creating Chronicles of New France: a concise chronology of contemporary events and personalities revealing the historical contexts that shaped and influenced early Canadian settlers' lives.

Need Help?

Category or Cemetery Set Up

We have some experts who have volunteered to assist you in setting up categories and also cemetery categories. What is great about using these tools? I'd have to say, what isn't?! Categories and especially cemetery categories can identify other individuals who were perhaps family members or neighbors (which in this project, are probably related somehow :) due to the circumstances. Categories can point you to a possible connection or even resources that you can use to knock down brick walls and fill out your tree, so please make use of them. We all benefit!

• Reference:*Category Cemetery Formatting.

• Dan Thompson is a WikiTree Leader, co-leader of the US Cemetery project, and a long time member of the Categorization project. Excellent source.
• Phil Smith is a WikiTree Leader Emeritus (means he's in semi retirement), former leader of the Categorization project, and overall genius regarding the structure of categories. You'll see his name on G2G frequently answering questions.
• Michael Stills has been a member since January of 2012 and with his record of answers on G2G being chosen as Best Answer, he is definitely a great person to go to for assistance!
• Jason Crews is an active member of multiple genealogical organizations, with membership in Grand Prairie Genealogical Society, Dallas Genealogical Society, Lamar County Genealogical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society, The NextGen Genealogy Network and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Jason is also a member of the GeneaBloggers community at GenealogySphere.com. Obviously this is one well connected person to assist you!

Existing Categories

• Louisiana First Families
• Louisiana, Cemeteries
• Louisiana
• Louisiana Rebellion of 1768
• Louisiana Purchase
• French History
• Louisiana Militia, American Revolution
• Galvez Expedition
• St Martinville, Louisiana Acadian Memorial
• Battle of Baton Rouge 1779
• Gulf Coast War of 1812
• Fench and Indian War 1754-1763
• Louisiana Religious Institutions

Related Free Space Pages

Please add a short description, and separate "paragraphs" using the = keys on either side of the title as needed. See the next paragraph for an example that uses 6 = signs on either side.

Surname/Family Pages

Cemeteries

• Category Cemetery Formatting
• Louisiana, Cemeteries

• Reference:*Category Cemetery Formatting.

• Dan Thompson is a WikiTree Leader, co-leader of the US Cemetery project, and a long time member of the Categorization project. Excellent source.
• Phil Smith is a WikiTree Leader Emeritus (means he's in semi retirement), former leader of the Categorization project, and overall genius regarding the structure of categories. You'll see his name on G2G frequently answering questions.
• Michael Stills has been a member since January of 2012 and with his record of answers on G2G being chosen as Best Answer, he is definitely a great person to go to for assistance!
• Jason Crews is an active member of multiple genealogical organizations, with membership in Grand Prairie Genealogical Society, Dallas Genealogical Society, Lamar County Genealogical Society, Texas State Genealogical Society, The NextGen Genealogy Network and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Jason is also a member of the GeneaBloggers community at GenealogySphere.com. Obviously this is one well connected person to assist you!

On individual Cemetery pages, resources should be listed along with a description.

Free Resources

Paid Resource Sites

Photos and Images

Royal Flag until 1760 = US_Southern_Colonies_French.png

Interactive Map

Interactive Map of Louisiana Parish Formation History

Sources for this Page