page_title: Louisiana (New Spain)
hierarchical_section_title: Louisiana (New Spain)
caption_attribution_description: William H. Powell was the last artist to be commissioned by the Congress for a painting in the Rotunda. His dramatic and brilliantly colored canvas shows Spanish conqueror and explorer Hernando DeSoto, riding a white horse, the first European to view the Mississippi River, in 1541. As De Soto and his troops approach, the Native Americans in front of their tepees watch, and a chief holds out a peace pipe. In the foreground is a jumble of weapons and soldiers, suggesting the attack they had suffered shortly before. To the right, a monk prays as a crucifix is set in the ground.Powell (1823–1879) was born in New York and raised in Ohio. He studied art in Italy and worked on the painting in Paris. He also painted The Battle of Lake Erie, which hangs in the east Senate Grand Staircase in the Capitol. The dimensions of this oil painting on canvas are 365.76 cm by 548.64 cm (144.00 in by 216.00 in).
context_page_description: Louisiana was an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1763 to 1801. It included the area west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans. Spain got the territory from France, which had named it La Louisiane after King Louis XIV in 1682. It is sometimes called Spanish Louisiana. The district was given back to France, under the terms of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso and the Treaty of Aranjuez. In 1802, King Charles IV of Spain wrote a royal bill on 14 October. This changed the transfer and outlined the conditions.
  However, Spain agreed to still run the colony until French officials came and made the transfer official. The ceremony happened at the Cabildo in New Orleans on 30 November 1803. This was just three weeks before the formalities of cession from France to the United States pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase.
context_section_description: Louisiana (Spanish: Luisiana) was an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1763 to 1801. It included the area west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans. Spain got the territory from France, which had named it La Louisiane after King Louis XIV in 1682. It is sometimes called Spanish Louisiana. The district was given back to France, under the terms of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800) and the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801). In 1802, King Charles IV of Spain wrote a royal bill on 14 October. This changed the transfer and outlined the conditions.
  However, Spain agreed to still run the colony until French officials came and made the transfer official (1803). The ceremony happened at the Cabildo in New Orleans on 30 November 1803. This was just three weeks before the formalities of cession from France to the United States pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase.
caption: DeSoto claiming the Mississippi, as depicted in the United States Capitol rotunda
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