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| New
Orleans |
The port of New Orleans is the main reason the city was founded
and why it has endured. Sitting on the banks of the mighty Mississippi
River and Gulf of Mexico, it quickly became a strategic military
and trading port. Lumber, animal hides, tobacco, and many other
indigenous products were traded for cloth, spices, wine, and other
goods.
In 1754 England and France went to war. The British colonies called
it the French and Indian War, Europe dubbed it the Seven Year's
War. Either way, the French lost New Orleans and all its territory
east of the Mississippi. However, territory west of the Mississippi
was not included in the package, and in 1762 the secret Treaty of
Fontainebleau was signed. New Orleans became a possession of Spain.
Don Antonio de Ulloa was the first Spanish governor of New Orleans,
he was quickly driven out by Louisiana Frenchmen in a bloodless
coupe that was supposedly the first revolution on American soil.
Spain retaliated. In July 1769, General Alexander O'Reilly, an
Irishmen in Spanish service, took the city back.
Napoleon turned the tables again and forced Spain to hand Louisiana
over to the French in 1800. France's dominance was short lived.
Unable to defend North America and in need of cash, Napoleon sold
the Louisiana Territory, including New Orleans to the US in 1803.
New Orleans was still to be a contested city. General Andrew Jackson
defended the city against the British in the War of 1812, earning
a place in the city's most famous square, which bears his name.
In 1861 Louisiana joined the Confederacy. As the largest city in
the South and the bottleneck to the Mississippi, New Orleans quickly
became a Union target and fell in 1862, doing the Confederate cause
serious damage.
Although dubbed the Big Easy, this was no easy city to live in,
nor keep possession of. The people of New Orleans have suffered
epidemics of yellow fever and cholera, slavery, floods, hurricanes,
Civil War, Indian wars, conspiracies, racial riots, revolutions
and humidity. Maybe because of that, New Orleans is today the most
European of American cities, a festive place, rich in history, culture
and atmosphere.
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