Abbreviated as LA on abbreviationfinder.org, Louisiana is a state of the North American confederation, located between 29 ° and 33 ° lat. N., and 89 ° and 94 ° long. O. The surface consists of approximately 117,610 sq km. of land, as well as several thousand square kilometers occupied by rivers and lakes (overall 125,625 sq. km.), mostly collected at the southern end of the state, in the lowland near the Gulf of Mexico. The state is divided into 64 parishes (corresponding to the counties of other states), which in turn include 493 subdivisions (wards).
The territory, included in the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico, is made up of layers of the Tertiary and posterior, with few and small areas formed by outcrops of the underlying Cretaceous, denuded in the northern part. The layers are mostly made up of clay and sand. Soil surveys have revealed important deposits of salt, sulfur, oil and natural gas in various parts of the state, and these deposits yield products worth several million dollars a year.
The highest point of the territory is only 122 msm. The soil is largely covered by alluvial deposits of rivers, especially the Mississippi (v.), Which forms the largest stretch of the eastern border and flows into the Gulf of Mexico about 160 km. in south of New Orleans. A large region of the southern part consists of marshes at sea level, which are covered at high tide; some parts of the city of New Orleans are also at and below sea level, so much so that they must be protected by dikes against flooding.
The Mississippi is accessible by steamships much further upstream than the Louisiana borders, where other rivers are also partially navigable. The energy that can be obtained from the water is negligible due to the low altitude and the slowness of the currents.
The alluvial regions are very fertile and the higher regions, clayey, towards the north are also quite fertile; in the central, south-eastern and south-western regions, on the other hand, there are considerable areas of rather poor sandy soil.
The climate is warm-temperate and humid. In the extreme north, the average temperature is around 7 ° in January, about 28 ° in July, with an annual average of about 18 °; in the south there are the following averages: 12 ° in January, 28 ° in July and 20 ° of annual average. Annual rainfall ranges from around 1125 mm. in the NO. to 1500 mm. in the SE. In the north, the main rainy season is in winter and spring; in the south, it is in late summer. Snow and ice are relatively rare. Every few years, hurricanes sweep the coast on the Gulf of Mexico; but the marshy region near the coast is too sparsely populated to suffer serious damage.
On the poorest soils, the forests are mainly composed of pines; on alluvial soils cypresses (Taxodium) prevail. In the southern and central region there are extensive treeless grasslands, and equally treeless are the marshes along the coast. At least half of the original forest heritage has been cut down for wood harvesting or by farmers; however, wood still fuels an important industry, which in 1930 employed about 8,000 men in the forests and 26,000 in the sawmills. It is important to hunt muskrats (Fiber rivalicius) for their fur in the coastal marshes. Fish, oysters and small crustaceans are caught in large quantities in the sea and brackish waters.
The Aboriginal Indians of Louisiana were soon displaced by the white settlers and at the end of the first decade of the century. XX were reduced in Louisiana to less than 1000. However, the 1930 census found 1536. The first European settlers were mostly French; the natives of France and their descendants are now relatively more numerous in Louisiana than in any other state of the Union. Spanish rule in the last part of the century. XVIII produced an immigration also from Spain and moreover in Louisiana, as in the other southern states, many black slaves were imported from Africa to work on the plantations.
The census of 1810 found 76,556 inhabitants in the state, which rose in 1930 to 2,101,593 (17 inhabitants per sq. Km). In that year the population was made up as follows: 61.1% indigenous whites, 1.7% foreign whites, 36.9% blacks, 0.3% of other populations, especially Mexicans. More than a third of foreign whites are Italians, followed, in order of importance, by Germans, French, British and Canadians. Foreigners, as usual, live mainly in cities and of the 13,528 Italians in Louisiana, just over half are domiciled in New Orleans. The larger nucleus after this lives in the parish of Tangipahoa. Again according to the 1930 census, there were also 34,912 people with one or both Italian parents: slightly less than half of these people lived in New Orleans.
In 1930, 39.7% of the Louisiana population lived in cities with more than 2,500 inhabitants. The major urban centers are: New Orleans, main port, with 458,762 inhabitants; Shreveport (pop. 76,655), center of oil industry and road junction in the north; Baton Rouge (30,779 residents), Capital of the state; Monroe (pop. 26,028), center of the natural gas industry, N.; Lake Charles (pop. 15,791), with the lumber and oil industry, to southwest ; Lafayette (14,635 residents) And Bogalusa (14,029 residents), With the timber industry, to SE.
In 1930 the illiteracy of the adult population was 9.7% among Whites, and 29.0% among Negroes. Illiteracy, which is decreasing, is much lower in cities than in rural districts.
About 39.5% of Louisiana’s population lives on farms that occupy 32.2% of the state’s surface, of which cultivated land makes up about 19.5%. About 55% of the farmers are white and 45% are black. The main crops, in order of area occupied, are: cotton, maize, rice, sugar cane, hay, sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes. In sugar cane cultivation, Louisiana has far surpassed all other states in the Union. Cane cultivation takes place mostly on alluvial soils in the southern part of the state. Industries employ about 15% of Louisiana’s workers. The most important, without comparison, is wood processing, which makes up about 40% of the total. Sugar follows;
Louisiana has more than 8000 km. of railway lines and highways have been greatly improved since the automobile era. Of these roads, several hundreds of kilometers are paved.
History
The Louisiana coast was discovered by Lucas Vásquez (1520) and then by Panfilo Narváez (1528); the coasts of Mississippi itself were already visited in 1541 by De Soto, who also lost his life there; and in 1673 Marquette and Joliet went down the river to the mouth of Arkansas. But the glory of having discovered the mouth of the “father of the waters” (a discovery which, according to the belief of those times, gave the right over all the lands covered by it) belongs to La Salle (v.), Who arrived there in 1682. Arriving at the Gulf, he gave the whole land the name of his king, Louis XIV. Back in France, he had the government organize an expedition to colonize the new lands, and left with 4 ships and more than 300 settlers from La Rochelle on July 24, 1684. But the ship carrying the provisions was wrecked; the settlers could not find the mouth of the Mississippi, but dropped anchor at SSE. of the eastern tip of Mobile, landing on the island of Massacre or Delfina, on the shores of the Bay of Matagorda, in today’s Texas. This first colony did not last, and La Salle never managed to rediscover the mouth of the river. More luck had the settlers commanded by Lemoyne d’Yberville in 1700, who landed 38 miles below the site of New Orleans, at “Poverty Point”, built the fort of Biloxi and extended French rule northwards. French possession of Louisiana was limited to the south by the Río del Norte, the border then went along the coast that separates it from the Red River, to the Rocky Mountains, and to the east stopped halfway between Mobile and Pensacola. Towards the north the limit was never defined.
After the Treaty of Utrecht the colony was entrusted to Antoine Crozat, and Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac was appointed governor. The famous financier Law gained control of it in 1717 through the Western Company. But, after its absorption into the Company of the Indies, the project was wrecked in 1721. The colony, thanks to black and white immigration from 1718 to 1721, modestly continued to prosper. Bienville brother of Iberville, founded the city of New Orleans as governor. The finances, however, were not too prosperous, and in 1732 the company preferred to return the concession to the crown. The French attempt to unite Louisiana to Canada with a road and a chain of forts (Fort Duquesne, 1754) was one of the reasons for the war between the English and the French, the first sign of the Seven Years’ War. towards the end of which France preferred to transfer Louisiana to Spain (1762). Spain, however, obtained possession of it only in 1769. In February 1763, the Treaty of Paris gave Louisiana east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. Louisiana remained in Spain until 1800, but without prospering. The governor, Antonio de Ulloa, who arrived to take possession of it, had to retire to Havana after two years of vain efforts in the face of the tenacious attachment of the colonists to France. Only on 8 August 1769 O ‘Reilly, arriving with a Spanish fleet, was able, on the same day, to take the city. Fearful of arousing British greed, Spain prevented the development of Louisiana. After the revolution, relations with the United States were very bad. The doors to their trade were closed, and the Creeks Indians were instigated to attack them. However, with the Treaty of Madrid of October 27, 1795, the North Americans had the right to trade on the river and a warehouse in New Orleans for three years. Napoleon formed the plan to renew the French colonial empire in America. With the secret “preliminary” treaty of Sant’Ildefonso of October 1, 1800, he had the Louisiana surrendered, but it took two years to persuade Charles IV to sign it. And he did so only on condition that France never ceded the colony to others. England got wind of the treaty and hastened to inform Jefferson of it. Great was the emotion in America. Determined to avoid a war, the president sent Monroe to Paris in March 1803 to negotiate with the American ambassador Livingston. Meanwhile, Napoleon was fondling the plan to cede the colony to the United States, to earn its friendship and to prevent it from falling into the hand of the queen of the sea. With three conventions, dated 30 April, but probably signed later, the American delegates, who came to ask for an “outlet on the Gulf”, were amazed to assign a territory equal to the whole Union at the time “with the same extension that it has currently in the hands of Spain “, in exchange for 80 million francs (of which 20 to compensate American citizens with claims against France). The king of Spain saw in the transfer a violation of his rights, and did not want to consent to it before February 10, 1804. But the American flag was raised on December 20, 1803 on the Great Plaza of New Orleans. The “Territory of Orleans” was organized by law of March 26, 1804. In 1810 the territory was increased with the east section of the river, reaching the current borders of Louisiana. The rest of the acquired territory, however, held the name of Louisiana for the time being.
The absence of political rights and the prohibition of slave trafficking disgusted the citizens, who, with a petition to Congress, in 1805 obtained an elective chamber and entry into the Union as a state, as soon as Louisiana had reached a population of 60,000 inhabitants, which occurred in 1812. The constitution was promulgated in English and French, and French remained, with English, the official language until the middle of the century.
In the war of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans took place in Louisiana. Later the state enjoyed a flourishing agricultural and commercial development. In the civil war he did not hesitate to rebel in the north, signing the deed of secession as early as December 23, 1860. But for the last two years of the war his territory was mostly in the hands of the feds. During the “reconstruction” he fell prey to ignorant Negroes and the usual “carpet-baggers”, shady politicians from the north, who were violently driven out in 1877. Since then the state has enjoyed remarkable prosperity.
New Orleans
US city (Louisiana), extending over the Mississippi delta and along its banks, 90 km from the Gulf of Mexico. Founded in 1718 by J.-B. Lemoyne de Bienville, was named Nouvelle Orléans in honor of the regent of France, the Duke of Orléans. In 1722 the city was created the capital of Louisiana and remained with the French until 1763, when it was ceded to Spain; returned to the French in 1800, with the Louisiana purchase in 1803 it was sold to the USA. On the 8th of Jan. 1815 it was attacked by British naval and land forces, repelled by the regular army and the city militia, under the orders of Andrew Jackson. The city, whose population had been decimated by yellow fever in 1853, was conquered by the northern fleet of Captain DG Farragut during the Secession war, after a long and harsh siege, on 28 April. 1862. It was again the state capital from 1864 to 1882 (in 1849 the seat of government had been moved to Baton Rouge). In 2005 it was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Baton Rouge
According to countryaah.com, Baton Rouge is a city of the USA (222,064 residents In 2005), and capital of the state of Louisiana from 1849 to 1862 and from 1882 onwards. Port on Mississippi, an important hub for road, rail and air communications. The petroleum refining industry is flanked by the chemical, food and textile industries
Founded by the French colonists of Louisiana, it passed with the region to the Spaniards (1763): reoccupied by the French between 1800 and 1803, it was however not included in the Louisiana Purchase and remained under Spanish rule until 1810, when it declared independence from Spain; since 1813 it is part of the United States of America.
