New Orleans

The plan for New Orleans may have been issued in 1718, but it took three nations, many wars, and 85 years for the trading colony near the mouth of the Mississippi river to develop from an unfavorable plot of land into one of the main cultural melting pots in the new world.

The story of New Orleans began with the French in need of a new source of income to compensate for the losses to the treasure from war with England. Louis XIV hoped that the New World’s colonies would be that cash cow they needed. French-Canadian fur traders brought a plan to the king hoping to fund a voyage to the mouth of the Mississippi to settle trading colonies. Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville and his brother Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville set out with 200 settlers on 4 ships in October of 1698. It took until March of 1699 before the party found the mouth of the Mississippi and began to travel up the river. Iberville settled Biloxi and Ocean Springs before he would take a return trip to France, but returned to the Americas just to die of yellow fever in 1706. His brother had better fortune, however, being named Governor of Louisiana while control of Louisiana was given to Antoine Corzat for a term of 15 years. Control of the colony would pas to the Company of the West (later known as the Company of the Indies)

While the French settlers were working to establish new trading towns, King Louis XIV died, leaving Duc Philippe of Orleans, a Regent, to rule. The regent took to John Law, a Scotsman, as an advisor. Law developed a plan to sell shares of land, and forcibly relocate people to Louisiana. Law chose Bienville to act on his plan and he was named Governor for a second term. Bienville chose a site for the new city, called Nouvelle Orleans in honor of the new regent, but there was much dissention. Everyone, including Law himself and the Royal Engineers, wanted a new site, but Bienville prevailed choosing the site his brother had picked out years ago before his death.

The site for the town was unfavorable for building conditions. It was surrounded by swamps and in a position vulnerable to storms and flooding. Regardless of this, the position was strategically ideal being a “gatekeeper” to the Mississippi Valley. The French wanted to secure control of the valley and with that all boat traffic that would use it. The site was at a point where the Mississippi river and Lake Pontchartrain was at its shortest, which helped in moving troops, and the curve of the river would slow any approaching enemy’s ship from down river enough to open them to gunfire. Also, Louisiana Indians, as a trading spot to move goods between the two bodies of water, had used the site.

The finial plan for New Orleans was signed by engineer Pierre le Blond de la Tour on April 23, 1722. The plan called for a grid design in the form of eleven by six blocks all identical in size, however only four of the six were originally laid out. Adrian de Pauge was credited for the original conception of the plan in 1721. The city ran longwise parallel to the river, with the main square to house St. Louis Cathedral and Place d’Armes. Also, military embankments were planned for the front riverside of the city, but they tended to be more impressive in drawings than in reality.

Nouvelle Orleans was one of the earliest planned cities in the new world. Only Charleston (1680), Philadelphia (1682), Annapolis (1694), and Williamsburg (1699) predated it. In 1721, fifty men with the engineers began to plot out the land. Streets were named after important French men of the time, such as Rue St. Louis and Rue Bienville. They exist today as reminders of the French origins of the city. In 1723, after the addition of 800 men to the town, and with construction out growing any other Louisiana, New Orleans became the new capital, as Biloxi had burnt down. Bienville remained as governor until 1725 and was responsible for the Ursuline nuns to come to the colony, who built the first convent in the city in 1730.

Bienville, who had received much land extensions in 1719 to help with the city, was forced to sell a part of his immense estate in 1726 to the Jesuits, and give another portion to settlers. The Jesuits stayed until 1763 when they were kicked out and most of their buildings burnt and the land sold. Bienville, in 1743, moved to become the governor of Canada after being asked to stay for a third term, but returned to France for a short time. The governorship of New Orleans fell to Louis Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlerec, who ruled until the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The treaty lost France of her colonies with East of the Mississippi going to England, and all West, with New Orleans, going to Spain.

It took until April 21, 1764 for the transfer of power to become public when King Louis XV sent the letter to the Governor of Louisiana. On July 10, 1765, Charles III of Spain appointed