United States
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power.
The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations.
In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
Treaties of Portage des Sioux
The earlier treaties included the Treaty of St. The treaties were to form the basis in which tribes were to be relocated west of Missouri in Indian Territory. On March 11,1815, President James Madison appointed William Clark, Ninian Edwards, the President authorized an expenditure of $20,000 for gifts for the chiefs. The commissioners met in St. Louis, Missouri on May 11,1815 to make the arrangements, the treaty signings at Portage des Sioux were to occur between July 18 and September 16. The most notable chief to refuse the invitation was Black Hawk who was compelled to come and was the last sign the treaty and he was to resist its terms in the Black Hawk War. The tribes signing, Potawatomi Piankeshaw Lakota Mdewakantonwan Dakota Sioux Omaha Kickapoo Osage Nation Sac Fox Iowa Other tribes were to sign the treaties in St. Louis
St. Charles, Missouri
St. Charles is a city in, and the county seat of, St. Charles County, United States. The population was 65,794 at the 2010 census, making St. Charles the ninth-largest city in Missouri and it lies to the northwest, and is a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri on the Missouri River. For a time, it played a significant role in the United States westward expansion, the city served as the first Missouri capital from 1821 to 1826, and is the site of the Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne shrine. Native American peoples inhabited the area for at least 7,000 years, when the Europeans arrived the area was inhabited by the Ilini and Missouri nations. According to Hopewells Romantic Legends of the Missouri and Mississippi, Blanchette met another French Canadian at the site of St. Charles in 1765. Blanchette, determined to settle there, asked if Guillet, who had become a chief of a Dakota tribe, had chosen a name for it, I called the place Les Petites Côtes replied Bernard, from the sides of the hills that you see. By that name shall it be called, said Blanchette Chasseur, Blanchette settled there in about 1769 under the authority of the Spanish governor of Upper Louisiana.
He was appointed as the civil and military leader, serving until his death in 1793. Although the settlement was under Spanish jurisdiction, the settlers were primarily Native American, considered to begin in St. Charles, the Boones Lick Trail along the Missouri River lowlands was the major overland route for settlement of central and western Missouri. This area became known as the Boonslick or Boonslick Country, at Franklin, the trail ended. Westward progress continued on the Santa Fe Trail, the first church, built in 1791, was Catholic and dedicated to the Italian saint Charles Borromeo, under the Spanish version of his name, San Carlos Borromeo. The town became known as San Carlos del Misuri, St. Charles of the Missouri, the original location of the church is not known but a replica has been built just off Main Street. The fourth St. Charles Borromeo Church now stands on Fifth Street, the name of the town, San Carlos, was anglicized to St. Charles. William Clark arrived in St. Charles on May 16,1804, with him were 40 men and three boats, they made final preparations, as they waited for Meriwether Lewis to arrive from St.
Louis. They attended dances, and a service during this time. Lewis arrived via St. Charles Rock Road on May 20, the expedition launched the next day in a keel boat at 3,30 pm. St. Charles was the last established American town the expedition visited for more than two and a half years. When Missouri was granted statehood in 1821, the decided to build a City of Jefferson to serve as the state capital, in the center of the state
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief 1832 conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. Black Hawks motives were ambiguous, but he was hoping to avoid bloodshed while resettling on tribal land that had been ceded to the United States in the disputed 1804 Treaty of St. Louis. US officials, convinced that the British Band was hostile, mobilized a frontier militia, Black Hawk responded by successfully attacking the militia at the Battle of Stillmans Run. He led his band to a location in what is now southern Wisconsin and was pursued by US forces. Meanwhile, other Native Americans conducted raids against forts and settlements largely unprotected with the absence of US troops, some Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi warriors with grievances against European-Americans took part in these raids, although most tribe members tried to avoid the conflict. The Menominee and Dakota tribes, already at odds with the Sauks and Meskwakis, commanded by General Henry Atkinson, the US troops tracked the British Band.
Militia under Colonel Henry Dodge caught up with the British Band on July 21, Black Hawks band was weakened by hunger and desertion and many native survivors retreated towards the Mississippi. On August 2, US soldiers attacked the remnants of the British Band at the Battle of Bad Axe, Black Hawk and other leaders escaped, but surrendered and were imprisoned for a year. The Black Hawk War gave the young captain Abraham Lincoln his brief military service, other participants who became famous included Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson Davis. The war gave impetus to the US policy of Indian removal, in which Native American tribes were pressured to sell their lands and move west of the Mississippi River and stay there. In the 18th century, the Sauk and Meskwaki Native American tribes lived along the Mississippi River in what is now the U. S. states of Illinois, by the time of the Black Hawk War, the population of the two tribes was about 6,000 people. As the United States expanded westward in the early 19th century, the treaty became controversial because the Native leaders had not been authorized by their tribal councils to cede lands.
Historian Robert Owens argued that the chiefs probably did not intend to give up ownership of the land, and that they would not have sold so much valuable territory for such a modest price. Historian Patrick Jung concluded that the Sauk and Meskwaki chiefs intended to cede a little land, according to Jung, the Sauks and Meskwakis did not learn the true extent of the cession until years later. The 1804 treaty allowed the tribes to continue using the land until it was sold to American settlers by the U. S. government. For the next two decades, Sauks continued to live at Saukenuk, their village, which was located near the confluence of the Mississippi. In 1828, the U. S. government finally began to have the land surveyed for white settlement. Indian agent Thomas Forsyth informed the Sauks that they should vacate Saukenuk, the Sauks were divided about whether to resist implementation of the disputed 1804 treaty
Missouri River
The Missouri River is the longest river in North America. Rising in the Rocky Mountains of western Montana, the Missouri flows east and south for 2,341 miles before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river takes drainage from a populated, semi-arid watershed of more than half a million square miles. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the fourth longest river system. For over 12,000 years, people have depended on the Missouri River and its tributaries as a source of sustenance and transportation. More than ten major groups of Native Americans populated the watershed, most leading a nomadic lifestyle, the Missouri River was one of the main routes for the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century. The growth of the fur trade in the early 1800s laid much of the groundwork as trappers explored the region, pioneers headed west en masse beginning in the 1830s, first by covered wagon, by the growing numbers of steamboats entering service on the river.
Former Native American lands in the watershed were taken over by settlers, leading to some of the most longstanding, during the 20th century, the Missouri River basin was extensively developed for irrigation, flood control and the generation of hydroelectric power. Fifteen dams impound the main stem of the river, with more on tributaries. Meanders have been cut and the river channelized to improve navigation, from the Rocky Mountains of Montana and Wyoming, three streams rise to form the headwaters of the Missouri River. The longest begins near Browers Spring,9,100 feet above sea level, on the southeastern slopes of Mount Jefferson in the Centennial Mountains. Flowing west north, it runs first in Hell Roaring Creek, west into the Red Rock, swings northeast to become the Beaverhead and these two streams flow north and northwest into Montana. The Missouri River officially starts at the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison in Missouri Headwaters State Park near Three Forks, the Missouri passes through Canyon Ferry Lake, a reservoir west of the Big Belt Mountains.
Issuing from the mountains near Cascade, the flows northeast to the city of Great Falls, where it drops over the Great Falls of the Missouri. Farther on, the passes through the Fort Peck Dam, and immediately downstream. At the confluence, the Yellowstone is actually the larger river, the Missouri meanders east past Williston and into Lake Sakakawea, the reservoir formed by Garrison Dam. Below the dam the Missouri receives the Knife River from the west and flows south to Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota and it slows into the Lake Oahe reservoir just before the Cannonball River confluence. While it continues south, eventually reaching Oahe Dam in South Dakota, the Missouri makes a bend to the southeast as it winds through the Great Plains, receiving the Niobrara River and many smaller tributaries from the southwest
Verdigris River
The Verdigris River /ˈvɜːrdᵻɡrɪs/ is a tributary of the Arkansas River in southeastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma in the United States. It is about 310 miles long, via the Arkansas, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. The Verdigris is formed near Madison, Kansas, by the convergence of two short streams, its North and South forks, and flows generally southward throughout its course. South of Coffeyville, the river enters Oklahoma and it joins the Arkansas River near Muskogee, about a mile upstream of the mouth of the Neosho River. The area of convergence of the three rivers Arkansas and Neosho is called Three Forks, the river is mentioned in accounts by Zebulon Pike, Thomas Nuttall. Fur traders had numerous posts along its route where they met with Native Americans to exchange goods for furs, the river is mentioned in the novel Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, of her memories when her family moved to Kansas from Wisconsin. The name is derived from the Spanish words verde, meaning green, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the name may be derived from a gray-green substance resembling a copper ore, which tinged the water.
In the US treaty of 1834 with the Cherokee Indians, the river was named as a part of the boundary of their lands in the Indian Territory. In July 2007, Coffeyville Resources suffered flooding at its refinery at Coffeyville by the Verdigris River, the company made efforts to ameliorate the damage. Several dams built by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers cause the Verdigris to form Toronto Lake near Toronto and Oologah Lake near Oologah, more dams and reservoirs are downstream along the Arkansas River. From just north of Catoosa, Oklahoma to the confluence with the Arkansas. In Kansas, the Verdigris collects the Fall River at the town of Neodesha, in Oklahoma it collects the Caney River in Rogers County. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Verdigris River
Calvary Cemetery (St. Louis)
Calvary Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery located in St. Louis and operated by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Founded in 1854, it is the second oldest cemetery in the Archdiocese, Calvary Cemetery contains 470 acres of land and more than 300,000 graves, including those of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Dred Scott, Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin, and Auguste Chouteau. In 1849 a cholera epidemic struck St. Louis and claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people, at the same time, existing cemeteries in St. Louis were nearly full and had no room to expand. Recognizing the need for a new rural Catholic cemetery, Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick purchased Senator Henry Clay’s “Old Orchard Farm” in 1853, located several miles northwest of St. Louis. Kenrick initially set aside the eastern half of the 323-acre farm for a new cemetery, and kept the western half for himself, thus Calvary Cemetery opened for burials in 1854, with Archbishop Kenrick as its first president. Prior to the establishment of Calvary Cemetery, parts of the Clay farm had served as a place for Native Americans.
After 1854, these remains were reinterred in a grave under a large crucifix at one of the highest points in the cemetery. Graves at other Catholic cemeteries across St. Louis, such as Old Cathedral, Rock Springs, Holy Trinity, Old St. Patricks, New Bremen and others were dug up. Accessible space for traditional burials is available for the next 300 years at Calvary Cemetery. When they arrived in St. Louis these men had to rely on gestures to communicate. Two of the men, Black Eagle and Speaking Eagle, died of illness while in St. Louis and are buried in Calvary Cemetery, Senator Thomas Hart Benton on Bloody Island John Baptiste Charles Lucas, U. S
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the modern period, furs of boreal, polar. Historically the trade stimulated the exploration and colonization of Siberia, northern North America, today the importance of the fur trade has diminished, it is based on pelts produced at fur farms and regulated fur-bearer trapping, but has become controversial. Animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, citing that animals are brutally killed, Fur has been replaced in some clothing by synthetic imitations, for example, as in ruffs on hoods of parkas. Before the European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe. Its trade developed in the Early Middle Ages, first through exchanges at posts around the Baltic, the main trading market destination was the German city of Leipzig. Originally, Russia exported raw furs, consisting in most cases of the pelts of martens, wolves, foxes and hares.
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians began to settle in Siberia, in a search for the prized sea otter pelts, first used in China, and for the northern fur seal, the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska. From the 17th through the half of the 19th century. The fur trade played a role in the development of Siberia, the Russian Far East. As recognition of the importance of the trade to the Siberian economy, the sable is a symbol of the Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast. Fur was relied on to make clothing, a critical consideration prior to the organization of coal distribution for heating. Portugal and Spain played major roles in fur trading after the 15th century with their business in fur hats and they began by establishing trading posts along the Volga and Vychegda river networks and requiring the Komi people to give them furs as tribute. Novgorod, the chief fur-trade center prospered as the easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League, Novgorodians expanded farther east and north, coming into contact with the Pechora people of the Pechora River valley and the Yugra people residing near the Urals.
Both of these native tribes offered more resistance than the Komi, as Muscovy gained more power in the 15th century and proceeded in the gathering of the Russian lands, the Muscovite state began to rival the Novgorodians in the North. During the 15th century Moscow began subjugating many native tribes, one strategy involved exploiting antagonisms between tribes, notably the Komi and Yugra, by recruiting men of one tribe to fight in an army against the other tribe. Campaigns against native tribes in Siberia remained insignificant until they began on a larger scale in 1483 and 1499. Besides the Novgorodians and the indigenes, Muscovites had to contend with the various Muslim Tatar khanates to the east of Muscovy, at this point the phrase ruler of Obdor and all Siberian lands became part of the title of the Tsar in Moscow
Lewis and Clark Expedition
It began near St. Louis, made its way westward, and passed through the continental divide to reach the Pacific coast. The Corps of Discovery comprised a group of U. S. Army volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, Second Lieutenant William Clark. The campaigns secondary objectives were scientific and economic, to study the plants, animal life, and geography. With maps and journals in hand, the returned to St. Louis to report its findings to Jefferson. According to Thomas Jefferson himself, one goal was to find the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, Jefferson placed special importance on declaring U. S. The expedition made notable contributions to science, but scientific research was not the goal of the mission. During the 19th century, references to Lewis and Clark scarcely appeared in history books even during the United States Centennial in 1876, Lewis and Clark began to gain new attention around the start of the 20th century.
Both the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in St. Louis, in 2004, a complete and reliable set of the expeditions journals was compiled by Gary E. Moulton. In the 2000s, the bicentennial of the expedition further elevated popular interest in Lewis, as of 1984, no U. S. exploration party was more famous, and no American expedition leaders are more instantly recognizable by name. In the 1780s, while Minister to France, Jefferson met John Ledyard in Paris, like Captain Cook, Jefferson wished to discover a practical route through the Northwest to the Pacific coast. Alexander Mackenzie had already charted a route in his quest for the Pacific and his party became the first on record to cross America north of Mexico to the Pacific, when he arrived near Bella Coola in 1793—a dozen years before Lewis and Clark. Two years into his presidency, Jefferson asked Congress to fund an expedition through the Louisiana territory to the Pacific Ocean and he did not attempt to hide the Lewis and Clark expedition itself from Spanish and British officials, but rather claimed different reasons for the venture.
He used a message to ask for funding due to poor relations with the opposition party in Congress. In 1803, Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery, and named U. S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis its leader, Lewis demonstrated remarkable skills and potential as a frontiersman. As the expedition was gaining approval and funding, Jefferson made efforts to him for the long journey ahead. All the latter qualifications Capt. Lewis has, in 1803, Jefferson sent Lewis to Philadelphia to study medicinal cures under Benjamin Rush, a physician and humanitarian. Jefferson arranged for Lewis to be educated by Andrew Ellicott. Lewis, was not ignorant of science and had demonstrated to Jefferson a marked capacity to learn, at Monticello, Jefferson possessed the largest library in the world on the subject of the geography of the North American continent, and Lewis had full access to that library
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U. S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs, the Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U. S. states and two Canadian provinces. Its non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were African slaves, the Kingdom of France controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. Napoleon in 1800, hoping to re-establish an empire in North America, Frances failure to put down the revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States. The Americans originally sought to purchase only the city of New Orleans and its adjacent coastal lands. The Louisiana Purchase occurred during the term of the third President of the United States, before the purchase was finalized, the decision faced Federalist Party opposition, they argued that it was unconstitutional to acquire any territory.
Constitution did not contain provisions for acquiring territory, but he asserted that his constitutional power to negotiate treaties was sufficient. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, Louisiana was a pawn on the chessboard of European politics and it was controlled by the French, who had a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. Following French defeat in the Seven Years War, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi, the United States controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi to the sea, as the lands were being gradually settled by a few American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired piece by piece. The risk of power taking it from a weakened Spain made a profound reconsideration of this policy necessary. New Orleans was already important for shipping goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Pinckneys Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27,1795, gave American merchants right of deposit in New Orleans, Americans used this right to transport products such as flour, pork, lard, cider and cheese. The treaty recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, in 1798 Spain revoked this treaty, prohibiting American use of New Orleans, and greatly upsetting the Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo, Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, but the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30,1803, another ceremony was held in St. Louis a few months later, in part because during winter conditions the news of the New Orleans formalities did not reach Upper Louisiana. The March 9–10,1804, event is remembered as Three Flags Day, James Monroe and Robert R.
Livingston had traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans in January 1803. Their instructions were to negotiate or purchase control of New Orleans and its environs, the Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest territorial gain in U. S. history
Knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a monarch or other political leader for service to the monarch or country, especially in a military capacity. Historically, in Europe, knighthood was conferred upon mounted warriors, during the High Middle Ages, knighthood was considered a class of lower nobility. By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, often, a knight was a vassal who served as a fighter for a lord, with payment in the form of land holdings. The lords trusted the knights, who were skilled in battle on horseback, since the early modern period, the title of knight is purely honorific, usually bestowed by a monarch, as in the British honours system, often for non-military service to the country. The modern female equivalent in the United Kingdom is Dame, Geoffroi de Charnys Book of Chivalry expounded upon the importance of Christian faith in every area of a knights life. This novel explored the ideals of knighthood and their incongruity with the reality of Cervantes world, in the late medieval period, new methods of warfare began to render classical knights in armour obsolete, but the titles remained in many nations.
Some orders of knighthood, such as the Knights Templar, have become the subject of legend, each of these orders has its own criteria for eligibility, but knighthood is generally granted by a head of state or monarch to selected persons to recognise some meritorious achievement. This linkage is reflected in the etymology of chivalry, the special prestige accorded to mounted warriors finds a parallel in the furusiyya in the Muslim world, and the Greek hippeus and Roman eques of classical antiquity. The word knight, from Old English cniht, is a cognate of the German word Knecht and this meaning, of unknown origin, is common among West Germanic languages. Middle High German had the phrase guoter kneht, which meant knight, the Anglo-Saxon cniht had no connection to horsemanship, the word referred to any servant. A rādcniht, riding-servant, was a servant delivering messages or patrolling coastlines on horseback, a narrowing of the generic meaning servant to military follower of a king or other superior is visible by 1100.
The specific military sense of a knight as a warrior in the heavy cavalry emerges only in the Hundred Years War. The verb to knight appears around 1300, from the same time, an Equestrian was a member of the second highest social class in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as knight, the medieval knight, both Greek ἳππος and Latin equus are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word root ekwo-, horse. In the Roman Empire, the classical Latin word for horse, was replaced in common parlance by the vulgar Latin caballus, sometimes thought to derive from Gaulish caballos. From caballus arose terms in the various Romance languages cognate with the English cavalier, Italian cavaliere, Spanish caballero, French chevalier, Portuguese cavaleiro, the Germanic languages have terms cognate with the English rider, German Ritter, and Dutch and Scandinavian ridder. These words are derived from Germanic rīdan, to ride, in turn derived from the Proto-Indo-European root reidh-, in ancient Rome there was a knightly class Ordo Equestris from which European knighthood may have been derived.
Some portions of the armies of Germanic peoples who occupied Europe from the 3rd century AD onward had been mounted, in the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or miles in Latin
New Orleans
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U. S. Census, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502. The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and it is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is famous for its cuisine and its celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras. The city is referred to as the most unique in the United States. New Orleans is located in southeastern Louisiana, straddling the Mississippi River, the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. The city and parish are bounded by the parishes of St.
Tammany to the north, St. Bernard to the east, Plaquemines to the south, and Jefferson to the south and west. Lake Pontchartrain, part of which is included in the city limits, lies to the north, before Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish was the most populous parish in Louisiana. As of 2015, it ranks third in population, trailing neighboring Jefferson Parish, La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded May 7,1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha. It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time and his title came from the French city of Orléans. The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, during the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a campaign against the British from the city in 1779.
New Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight, nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French and Africans. Later immigrants were Irish and Italians, Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city. The Haitian Revolution ended in 1804 and established the republic in the Western Hemisphere. It had occurred several years in what was the French colony of Saint-Domingue
