Louisiana (New Spain)



Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New Spain from 1764 to 1803 that represented territory west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans, Louisiana. Spain acquired the territory from France: see Louisiana (New France).

The area, comprising what is now known as the Louisiana Purchase, was turned over to the French for a few days in 1803 before it, in turn, was turned over to the United States.

Spain was to be 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.

Although only maintaining it for 36 years, the Spanish were the ones who in fact were responsible for establishing much of New Orleans and Louisiana character that are normally associated with the French. Further, the Spanish control was to continue Catholic influence in the region.

Spanish Exploration

 * 1541 - Hernando de Soto exploring from Florida claims the Mississippi and all its tributaries for the Spanish crown.
 * 1541 - Francisco Vázquez de Coronado exploring from Mexico for the Seven Cities of Gold reaches Lindsborg, Kansas

French Control

 * 1673 - Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet began the exploration of the Mississippi descending from modern day Canada and the French begin to exert influence and claims over the territory.
 * 1699 - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville starts first French settlement, at Fort Maurepas (now Ocean Springs, Mississippi).
 * 1702 - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville moves French settlements to Dauphin Island and also in January, establishes Mobile colony, with Fort Louis at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff (up Mobile River).
 * 1714 - Natchitoches 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 was first incorporated on February 5, 1819. It is the oldest permanent settlement in the Louisiana Purchase.
 * 1718 - Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville starts construction of New Orleans, to move the capital of French Louisiana from Mobile and Biloxi to the Mississippi River crescent, considered safer during hurricane tides.


 * 1720 - Spanish Villasur expedition coming from Mexico is slaughtered near Columbus, Nebraska by Pawnees friendly to the French.
 * 1723 - New Orleans becomes the 3rd capital of French Louisiana.
 * 1724 - Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont council with the Commanche to resist Spanish expeditions coming from Mexico.
 * 1754 - France and Great Britain begin the French and Indian War.
 * 1760 - Britain effectively controls all of French colonies in Quebec.
 * 1761 - Spain sides with France in the now expanded Seven Years War.

Spanish Control

 * 1762 - As negotiations begin to settle the Seven Years War Louis XV of France secretly proposes to his cousin Charles III of Spain that France give Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainebleau
 * 1763 - Treaty of Paris ends the war with a provision in which France cedes all territory east of the Mississippi (including French Canada) to Britain. Spain cedes 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 proclaims that all land east of the Mississippi acquired in the war with the exception of East Florida, West Florida and Quebec will become Indian Reserve (Great Britain).
 * 1763 - The Acadian (Cajun) migration begins with French settlers from Quebec and settlers on the east side of the Mississippi who had been ordered to leave from the new Native American migrating to Louisiana which they believe is still French controlled land west of the Mississippi as well as New Orleans
 * 1764 - Pierre Laclede establishes the Maxent and Laclede Company trading post at St. Louis, Missouri
 * 1764 - Formal announcement that Spain has acquired Louisiana
 * 1765 - Joseph Broussard leads the first group of nearly 200 Acadians to St. Martinville, Louisiana.
 * 1768 - Antonio de Ulloa becomes the first Spanish governor of Louisiana. He does not fly the Spanish flag and is run off by a pro-French mob in the Rebellion of 1768
 * 1769 - Alejandro O'Reilly suppresses the rebellion, executes its leaders and sends other plotters to prison in Morro Castle (fortress) in Havana. He establishes Spanish law and the cabildo of New Orleans.  However he is otherwise benign and forgives other plotters as long as they swear allegiance to Spain.
 * 1770 - Luis de Unzaga starts the era of benign Spanish rule and frees the imprisoned plotters
 * 1770 - Spain begins an administrative of process of governing Upper Louisiana with lieutenant governors
 * 1779 - Spain declares war on Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War and begins the West Indies and Gulf Coast campaigns
 * 1780 - Battle of Saint Louis is the only battle west of the Mississippi in the war
 * 1781 - Spanish completes reconquest of Florida in Battle of Pensacola (1781)
 * 1783 - Treaty of Paris gives back Spanish control of Florida
 * 1788 - Great New Orleans Fire destroys virtually all of New Orleans. Governor Esteban Rodríguez Miró is a hero for his relief efforts.
 * 1789 - Work on rebuilding New Orleans including what is now the French Quarter begins. The new structures have courtyards and stone walls.  The cornersone for the new St. Louis Cathedral laid.
 * 1795 - Pinckney's Treaty settles boundary disputes with the United States and recognizes rights to navigate through New Orleans
 * 1795 - Spain begins a series of "scientific" explorations of the Missouri River including the MacKay and Evans Expedition
 * 1798 - Spain revokes United States rights to travel through New Orleans
 * 1799 - The newly rebuilt Cabildo opens.

French Control

 * 1800 - In Third Treaty of San Ildefonso Napoleon secretly acquires the territory but Spain continues to administer it
 * 1801 - United States permitted to use New Orleans
 * 1803 - Announcement of Louisiana Purchase by United States
 * 1803 - Spain refuses Lewis and Clark permission to travel up the Missouri River since the transfer from France has never been made official. They spend winter in Illinois at Camp Dubois
 * 1804 - France officially takes control in December 1803 but word is not conveyed to St. Louis until 1804 at Three Flags Day