Louisiana (New France)

**Louisiana** () or **French Louisiana** was an administrative district of New France. It was under French control 1682 to 1762 and 1801 (nominally) to 1803 when France sold it in the Louisiana Purchase. The area was named after King Louis XIV by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. The area included most of the drainage basin of the Mississippi River, and it went from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and it went from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains.

Louisiana included two regions. These regions are now known as Upper Louisiana (), which began north of the Arkansas River, and _Lower Louisiana_ (). Most of the French people in Upper Louisiana came from Canada.

The U.S. state of Louisiana is named for the historical region. Although it is only a small part of the vast lands claimed by France.

## Other websites

- _Site du ministère de la culture française: La Louisiane française (1682–1803)_
- _Bibliothèque Nationale de France: La France en Amérique_
- _Archives Canada-France: Nouvelle-France. Histoire d'une terre française en Amérique_
- _Site personnel de Jean-Pierre Pazzoni: Histoire de la Louisiane française_
- Site de l'association _France-Louisiane: Louisiane française. Entretien avec Bernard Lugan_
- _Hérodote: 9 avril 1682, Cavelier de la Salle baptise la Louisiane_
- _University of Laval: 30 avril 1803: traité d'achat de la Louisiane_
- Museum of the State of Louisiana
- Fort Rosalie, Mississippi
- New France: 1524–1763
- History of New Orleans

## Infobox (former subdivision)

- **common name**: New France
- **native name**: _La Louisiane_
- **conventional long name**: French colonial Louisiana
- **nation**: New France
- **subdivision**: District
- **image flag**: Royal Standard of King Louis XIV.svg
- **flag type**: Flag of New France (until 1760)
- **flag**: Flag of France#History
- **image coat**: Coat_of_Arms_of_Kingdom_of_France.svg
- **image map**: New France (orthographic projection).svg
- **image map caption**: New France before the Treaty of Utrecht
- **capital**: Mobile, Alabama, Mobile (1702–1720)
Biloxi, Mississippi, Biloxi (1720–1722)
New Orleans, La Nouvelle-Orléans (after 1722)
- **p1**: Louisiana (New Spain)
- **flag p1**: Flag of New Spain.svg
- **p2**: Indian Reserve (1763)
- **flag p2**: Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg
- **s1**: Louisiana (New Spain)
- **flag s1**: Flag of New Spain.svg
- **s2**: Indian Reserve (1763)
- **flag s2**: Union flag 1606 (Kings Colors).svg
- **s3**: Louisiana Purchase
- **flag s3**: US flag 15 stars.svg
- **life span**: 1682–1763

1801–1803
- **year start**: 1682
- **year end**: 1803
- **date end**: 20 December
- **event end**: Transferred to the United States
- **date event1**: 1762
- **event1**: Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762), Split west to Spain
- **date event2**: 1763
- **event2**: Indian Reserve (1763), Split east to Great Britain
- **date event3**: 21 March 1801
- **event3**: Treaty of Aranjuez (1801), Spanish retrocession
- **date event4**: 30 April 1803
- **event4**: Louisiana Purchase
- **political subdiv**: Illinois Country, Upper Louisiana;
 Lower Louisiana
- **today**:

- **image map2**: Louisiana Purchase.png