Louisiana
Louisiana State Flower
The State of Louisiana French: État de Louisiane, pronounced is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge and the most populous city is New Orleans. The largest parish by population is Jefferson Parish and largest by area is Terrebonne Parish (Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties). The New Orleans metropolitan area is Louisiana`s largest.
Louisiana has a unique multicultural and multilingual heritage. Originally part of New France, Louisiana is home to many speakers of Cajun French and Louisiana Creole French. African American/Franco-African and French/French Canadian form the two largest groups of ancestry in Louisiana`s population.Affordable property in louisiana
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Namesake
Louisiana (New France) was named after Louis XIV, king of France from 1643-1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis". Louisiana was once part of the Louisiana Territory which once stretched from present-day New Orleans to across the present day Canadian border. The territory was acquired in 1803 by the United States by way of the Louisiana Purchase. Part or all of 15 states were formed from the territory.
An alternative explanation of the name is that Louisiana is a combination of Louis the XIV and his wife Anna of Austria. This, however, is false. While his mother was Anne of Austria, Louis the XIV was married to Marie-Thérèse.
History
Early settlement
Louisiana was inhabited by Native Americans when European explorers arrived in the 17th century. Many place names in the state are transliterations of those used in Native American dialects. Among the tribes that inhabited what is now Louisiana included the Atakapa, the Opelousa, the Acolapissa, the Tangipahoa, the Chitimacha in the southeast of the state, the Washa, the Chawasha, the Yagenechito, the Bayougoula and the Houma (part of the Choctaw nation), the Quinipissa, the Okelousa, the Avoyel and the Taensa (part of the Natchez nation), the Tunica, and the Koroa. Central and northwest Louisiana was home to a substantial portion of the Caddo nation and the Natchitoches confederacy consisting of the Natchitoches, the Yatasi, the Nakasa, the Doustioni, the Quachita, and the Adai.
Exploration and colonization by Europeans
The first European explorers to visit Louisiana came in 1528. The Spanish expedition (led by Panfilo de Narváez) located the mouth of the Mississippi River. In 1541, Hernando De Soto`s expedition crossed the region. Then Spanish interest in Louisiana lay dormant. In the late 17th century, French 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 Robert Cavelier de La Salle named the region Louisiana to honor France`s King Louis XIV in 1682. The first permanent settlement, Fort Maurepas (at what is now Ocean Springs, Mississippi, near Biloxi), was founded by Pierre Le Moyne d`Iberville, a French military officer from Canada, in 1699.
The French colony of Louisiana originally claimed all the land on both sides of the Mississippi River and north to French territory in Canada. The following States were part of Louisiana: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota.
The settlement of Natchitoches (along the Red River in present-day northwest Louisiana) was established in 1714 by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, making it the oldest permanent European settlement in the Louisiana Purchase territory. The French settlement had two purposes: to establish trade with the Spanish in Texas, 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, concentrated along the banks of the Mississippi and its major tributaries, from Louisiana to as far north as the region called the Illinois Country, around Peoria, Illinois and present-day St. Louis, Missouri. See also: French colonization of the Americas
Initially Mobile, Alabama and Biloxi, Mississippi functioned as the capital of the colony; recognizing the importance of the Mississippi River to trade and military interests, France made New Orleans the seat of civilian and military authority in 1722. From then until the Louisiana Purchase made the region part of the United States on December 20, 1803, France and Spain would trade control of the region`s colonial empire.
In the 1720s, German immigrants settled along the Mississippi River in a region referred to as the German Coast.
Most of the territory to the east of the Mississippi was lost to the Kingdom of Great Britain in the French and Indian War, except for the area around New Orleans and the parishes around Lake Pontchartrain. The rest of Louisiana became a colony of Spain after the Seven Years` War by the Treaty of Paris of 1763.
During the period of Spanish rule, several thousand French-speaking refugees from the region of Acadia (now Nova Scotia, Canada) made their way to Louisiana following British expulsion; settling largely in the southwestern Louisiana region now called Acadiana. The Acadian refugees were welcomed by the Spanish, and descendants came to be called Cajuns.
Canary Islanders, called Isleños, migrated to Louisiana under the Spanish crown between 1778 and 1783.
In 1800, France`s Napoleon Bonaparte acquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, an arrangement kept secret for some two years.
Purchase by the United States
When the United States won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, one of its major concerns was having a European power on its western boundary, and the need for unrestricted access to the Mississippi River. As American settlers pushed west, they found that the Appalachian Mountains provided a barrier to shipping goods eastward. The easiest way to ship produce was to build a flatboat and float down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the port of New Orleans, from which goods could be put on ocean-going vessels. The problem with this route was that the Spanish owned both sides of the Mississippi below Natchez. Napoleon`s ambitions in Louisiana involved the creation of a new empire centered on the Caribbean sugar trade. By terms of the Treaty of Amiens of 1800, Great Britain returned ownership of the islands of Martinique and Guadaloupe to the French. Napoleon looked upon Louisiana as a depot for these sugar islands, and as a buffer to U.S. settlement. In October of 1801 he sent a large military force to retake the important island of Santo Domingo, lost in a slave revolt in the 1790s.
Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, was disturbed by Napoleon`s plans to re-establish French colonies in America. With the possession of New Orleans, Napoleon could close the Mississippi to U.S. commerce at any time. Jefferson authorized Robert R. Livingston, U.S. Minister to France, to negotiate for the purchase for up to $2 million of the City of New Orleans, portions of the east bank of the Mississippi, and free navigation of the river for U.S. commerce.
An official transfer of Louisiana to French ownership had not yet taken place, and Napoleon`s deal with the Spanish was a poorly kept secret on the frontier. On October 18, 1802, however, a strange thing happened. Juan Ventura Morales, Acting Intendant of Louisiana, made public the intention of Spain to revoke the right of deposit at New Orleans for all cargo from the United States. The closure of this vital port to the United States caused anger and consternation, and commerce in the west was virtually blockaded. Historians believe that the revocation of the right of deposit was prompted by abuses of the Americans, particularly smuggling, and not by French intrigues as was believed at the time. President Jefferson ignored public pressure for war with France, and appointed James Monroe special envoy to Napoleon, to assist in obtaining New Orleans for the United States. Jefferson boosted the authorized expenditure of funds to $10 million.
On April 11, 1803, Talleyrand asked Robert Livingston how much the United States was prepared to pay for Louisiana. Livingston was confused, as his instructions only covered the purchase of New Orleans and the immediate area, not the entire Louisiana territory. James Monroe agreed with Livingston that Napoleon might withdraw this offer at any time. To wait for approval from President Jefferson might take months, so Livingston and Monroe decided to open negotiations immediately. By April 30, they closed a deal for the purchase of the entire 828,000 square miles (2,145,000 km²) Louisiana territory for 60 million Francs (approximately $15 million). Part of this sum was used to forgive debts owed by France to the United States. The payment was made in United States bonds, which Napoleon sold at face value to the Dutch firm of Hope and Company, and the British banking house of Baring, at a discount of 87 1/2 per each $100 unit. As a result, Napoleon received only $8,831,250 in cash for Louisiana. Dutiful banker Alexander Baring conferred with Marbois in Paris, shuttled to the United States to pick up the bonds, took them to Britain, and returned to France with the money - and Napoleon used these funds to wage war against Baring`s own country.
When news of the purchase reached the United States, President Jefferson was surprised. He had authorized the expenditure of $10 million for a port city, and instead received treaties committing the government to spend $15 million on a land package which would double the size of the country. Jefferson`s political opponents in the Federalist Party argued that the Louisiana Purchase was a worthless desert, and that the Constitution did not provide for the acquisition of new land or negotiating treaties without the consent of the Senate. What really worried the opposition were the new states which would inevitably be carved from the Louisiana territory, strengthening Western and Southern interests in Congress, and further reducing the influence of New England Federalists in national affairs. President Jefferson was an enthusiastic supporter of westward expansion, and held firm in his support for the treaty. Despite Federalist objections, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana treaty in the autumn of 1803.
A transfer ceremony was held in New Orleans on November 29, 1803. Since the Louisiana territory had never officially been turned over to the French, the Spanish took down their flag, and the French raised theirs. The following day, General James Wilkinson accepted possession of New Orleans for the United States. A similar ceremony was held in St. Louis on March 9, 1804, when a French tricolor was raised near the river, replacing the Spanish national flag. The following day, Captain Amos Stoddard of the First U.S. Artillery marched his troops into town and ran the stars and stripes up the fort`s flagpole. The Louisiana territory was officially transferred to the United States government, represented by Meriwether Lewis.
The Louisiana Territory, purchased for less than 3 cents an acre, doubled the size of the United States literally overnight, without a war or the loss of a single American life, and set a precedent for the purchase of territory. It opened the way for the eventual expansion of the United States across the continent to the Pacific, and its consequent rise to the status of world power.
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Louisiana Real Estate - A French Influence by Raynor James
Obviously, Louisiana had a rough year in 2005 with Hurricane Katrina. The state will recover as will Louisiana real estate.
Louisiana
Louisiana has obviously been in the news because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. To say the entire episode is a tragedy is to understate the obvious. Louisiana is a state that has overcome problems before and it will do it again. For the purposes of this article, I am going to discuss the state pre-hurricane because, frankly, the state will recover within a year or so. It has done it before.
Louisiana is a state with an absolute ton of character. In fact, you will find no other state in the country that can match it. There is a heavy French influence and the people, towns and cities are eclectic to say the least. From plantations to Mardi Gras to funky little towns to incredible food and music, Louisiana is state that can capture your imagination.
New Orleans
Yes, New Orleans took a beating in the hurricane and subsequent flooding. This was not the first hurricane to cause damage and the city will recover. If you base your opinion of the city on the things you saw on the television or heard in the media, you are making a mistake. This is a city with extremes in many areas, from food to music to lifestyles and so on.
New Orleans is like no other city in the country. Here you will find fire-eaters and street artists, old river steamboats, food to die for, old plantation homes and a music scene that can`t be beat. The French Quarter is beautiful and chaotic, particularly during Mardi Gras. Walking through the city, you`ll find little street markets; walk up eateries and eclectic little spots like the Voodoo Museum. The redeveloped River Walk area on the Mississippi River is a good spot to while away the hours as are the tours around the city. Keep in mind, New Orleans is the home of author Anne Rice and the location of her Vampire Chronicles book series. Words will never accurately describe New Orleans; it is just a place you have to investigate. You will either love the chaos or hate it.
Baton Rouge
The state capitol of Louisiana, Baton Rouge is New Orleans without the edge. An easygoing city with a heavy French influence, the city feels more like a place you could actually live in compared to New Orleans. Although the city was hit by Hurricane Katrina, it did not suffer the devastation seen in other locations. Home to Louisiana State University, the city has a college feel with college football being the name of the game.
Louisiana Real Estate
Obviously, figures for Louisiana real estate are irrelevant following the events of this year. Generally, single-family homes averaged $200,000 throughout the state prior to the hurricane. Appreciation rates were also a modest 6.5 percent.Real Estate Agents in Alexandria, louisiana
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If there is a silver lining to Hurricane Katrina, it is the redevelopment that will occur throughout the state. Hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing into the state, which will lead to a major makeover. New Orleans, in particular, is going to get a major face-lift with as many as 40,000 structures being replaced. As things settle down, real estate opportunities may be plentiful.
Raynor James is with the FSBO site - FSBOAmerica.org - homes for sale by owner. Visit our home buying page to view and buy Louisiana real estate.
Source:
1. James, Raynor. "Louisiana Real Estate - A French Influence." EzineArticles 03 November 2005. 05 November 2007 <http://ezinearticles.com/?Louisiana-Real-Estate---A-French-Influence&id=91648>.
