page_title: History of Christianity in the United States
section_title: French territories
hierarchical_section_title: History of Christianity in the United States / Early Colonial era / French territories
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans, by Rafal Konieczny, 2004 Français&#160;: Cathédrale St Louis, La Nouvelle Orléans, par Rafal Konieczny, 2004 Polski: Katedra Świętego Ludwika, Nowy Orlean, Rafał Konieczny, 2004
context_page_description: Christianity was introduced to North America as it was colonized by Europeans beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Spanish, French, and British brought Roman Catholicism to the colonies of New Spain, New France and Maryland respectively, while Northern European peoples introduced Protestantism to Massachusetts Bay Colony, New Netherland, Virginia colony, Carolina Colony, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Lower Canada. Among Protestants, adherents to Anglicanism, Methodism, the Baptist Church, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, Quakerism, Mennonite and Moravian Church were the first to settle in the US, spreading their faith in the new country. Notwithstanding this commonplace timeline, scholars of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assert that Christianity was first introduced to the Americas approximately 34 A.D., according to what is recorded in 3 Nephi Chapter 11, which chronicles the appearance of Jesus Christ to the Native Americans.
  Today most Christians in the United States are Mainline Protestant, Evangelical, or Roman Catholic.
context_section_description: In the French territories, Catholicism was ushered in with the establishment of colonies and forts in Detroit, St. Louis, Mobile, Biloxi, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans. In the late 17th century, French expeditions, which included sovereign, religious and commercial aims, established a foothold on the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast. With its first settlements, France lay claim to a vast region of North America and set out to establish a commercial empire and French nation stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada.
  The French colony of Louisiana originally claimed all the land on both sides of the Mississippi River and the lands that drained into it. The following present day states were part of the then vast tract of Louisiana: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
caption: Saint Louis Cathedral in New Orleans
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