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Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Law and government
3 Geography
3.1 Topography
3.2 Geology
3.3 Interstate highways
3.4 United States highways
4 Economy
5 Demographics
5.1 Religion
6 Important cities and towns
6.1 Ten richest places in Louisiana
7 Education
7.1 Colleges and universities
8 Professional sports teams
8.1 Football
8.2 Baseball
8.3 Basketball
8.4 Hockey
9 Miscellaneous information
10 References
11 See also
12 External links
[edit]
History
Louisiana was long inhabited by Native American tribes before the arrival of Europeans. The lasting mark of the Native Americans can be seen even today in the names used in Louisiana, such as Atchafalaya, Natchitouches (now spelled Natchitoches), Caddo, Houma, Tangipahoa, and Avoyel (Avoyelles Parish).
What follows is a partial list, using current parish boundaries as rough approximations of locations.[1]
The Atakapa were found in southwestern Louisiana in the parishes of Vermilion, Cameron, Lafayette, Acadia, Jefferson Davis, and Calcasieu.
The Chitimachas occupied the southeastern parishes of Iberia, Assumption, St Mary, Lower St. Martin, Terrebone, LaFourche, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St.Bo St. Charles, Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines.
The Bayougoula, part of the Choctaw nation, were found in points directly north of the Chitimachas, in the parishes of St. Helena, Tangipahoa, Washington, East and West Baton Rouge, Livingston, and St. Tammany.
The Houma tribe, was found in East and West Feliciana, and Pointe Coupee parishes; Ironically about 100 miles north of current location of the town named after them.
Portions of Avoyelles and Concordia parishes along the Mississippi River were home to the Avoyel, part of the Natchez nation.
The northeastern parishes of Tensas, Madison, and East and West Carroll were occupied by the Tunica tribe.
The remainder of current day central and north Louisiana was home to a substantial portion of the Caddo nation.
The first European explorers to visit what is now Louisiana was a Spanish expedition in 1528 led by Panfilo de Narváez which located the mouth of the Mississippi River. Some 13 years later Hernando de Soto's expedition crossed through the region. Thereafter the region was long neglected by the Spanish authorities, and the next explorers were French. Louisiana was named by the French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle in honour of Louis XIV in 1682. The first permanent settlement was founded by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1699.
The French colony of Louisiana originally claimed a great region of land on both sides of the Mississippi River and north to Canada. Most of the settlement concentrated along the banks of the Mississippi and its major tributaries, with trading outposts and mission settlements in the Illinois Country, as far north as Peoria, Illinois and a number of settlements in the area around near present-day Saint Louis, Missouri. See also: French colonization of the Americas
Initially Mobile, Alabama and Biloxi, Mississippi functioned as the capital of the colony; from 1722 on New Orleans fulfilled that role.
Most of the territory to the east of the Mississippi was lost to Great Britain in the French and Indian War, except for the area around New Orleans and the parishes around Lake Pontchartrain. The rest of Louisiana became a colony of Spain by the Treaty of Fountainebleau of 1762.
During the period of Spanish rule, several thousand French-speaking refugees from the region of Acadia made their way to Louisiana following British expulsion; settling largely in the southwestern bayous, they became known as the Cajuns.
In 1800 France's Napoleon Bonaparte re-acquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, although this was kept secret for some two years.
In 1803 the United States purchased the French province of Louisiana (see Louisiana Purchase) and divided it into two territories: the Orleans Territory (which became the state of Louisiana in 1812) and the District of Louisiana (which consisted of all the land not included in Orleans Territory). The Florida Parishes were annexed from Spanish West Florida by proclamation of President James Madison in 1810. The western boundary of Louisiana with Spanish Texas remained in dispute until the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, with the Sabine Free State serving as a neutral buffer zone as well as a haven for criminals.
There are still remnants of its former status as a possession of France, including: the use of a civil law legal system, based on the Louisiana Civil Code, which is similar to (and often confused with) the Napoleonic Code (like France, and unlike the rest of the United States, which uses a common law legal system derived from England), the term "parishes" being used to describe the state's sub-divisions as opposed to "counties", etc.
In 1849 the capital moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Donaldsonville, Opelousas, and Shreveport have also briefly served as the seat of governments of Louisiana.
Louisiana was a slave state. It did, however, have one of the largest free black populations in the United States. Many of the freed slaves in Louisiana in turn purchased their own slaves, which led to the state having one of the largest numbers of slave owning blacks in America, if not the largest.
In the American Civil War Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. New Orleans was captured by Federal troops on April 25, 1862. As significant portions of the population had Union sympathies, the Federal government took the unusual step of recognizing the areas of Louisiana under Federal control as a state within the Union with elected representatives who were sent to the congress in Washington, D.C. throughout the rest of the war.
On August 30, 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck and devastated a vast area of the state. Estimates are that more than two million people have been displaced by the hurricane and thousands are feared dead. Widespread looting and violence has been reported, especially in New Orleans. The disaster will cost the state tens of billions of dollars immediately, and the long term economic repercussions can only be guessed at.
[edit]
Law and government
The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge. Its governor is Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (Democrat) and its two U.S. senators are Mary Landrieu (Democrat) and David Vitter (Republican). Louisiana has seven Members of Congress, five Republicans and two Democrats.
Louisiana is the only state whose legal system is based on Roman, Spanish, and French civil law as opposed to English common law. Technically, it is known as "Civil Law," or the "Civilian System." It is often incorrectly referred to as the "Code Napoleon" or The Napoleonic Code. It is important to note that the Louisiana Civil Code and the French Civil Code, often referred to as the Napoleonic Code, came into existence at roughly the same time. Louisiana was never governed by the Napoleonic Code.
Great differences still exist between Louisiana Civil Law and the Common Law found in her 49 sister states. While most of the differences are now found in verbiage,[2] it is important to note that the "Civilian" tradition is still deeply rooted in all aspects of Louisiana law. Property, contractual, and family law are still mostly based on traditional Roman legal thinking and have little in common with English law.
Louisiana is unique among U.S. states in using a runoff in state, local, and congressional elections. All candidates run in an open primary on Election Day, in which multiple candidates from the same party may be on the ballot. If no candidate has more than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the highest vote total compete in a runoff election approximately one month later. This runoff does not take into account party identification. Therefore it is common for a Democrat to be in a runoff with a fellow Democrat or a Republican to be in a runoff with a fellow Republican. All other states use the First Past the Post electoral system to elect Senators, Representatives, and statewide officials.
See: list of Louisiana Governors, Napoleon Bonaparte
In 2001, Louisiana had the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 1% of the population of Louisiana imprisoned (1013 inmates per 100,000 people).
[edit]
Geography
Map of LouisianaSee: List of parishes of Louisiana
[edit]
Topography
The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands, and the alluvial and coast and swamp regions. The alluvial regions, including the low swamps and coast lands, cover an area of about 20,000 square miles; they lie principally along the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 miles and ultimately emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, the Red River, the Ouachita River and its branches, and other minor streams. The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles, and along the other streams it averages about 10 miles. The Mississippi flows upon a ridge formed by its own deposits, from which the lands incline toward the low swamps beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile. The lands along other streams present very similar features. These alluvial lands are never inundated save when breaks occur in the levees by which they are protected against the floods of the Mississippi and its tributaries. These floods, however, do not occur annually, and they may be said to be exceptional. With the maintenances of strong levees these alluvial lands would enjoy perpetual immunity from inundation. The uplands and contiguous hill lands have an area of more than 25,000 square miles, and they consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea-level range from 10 feet at the coast and swamp lands to 50 and 60 feet at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills the elevations rise to Mount Driskoll, the highest point in the state at only 535 feet above sea level, located in northwest Louisiana.
Besides the navigable rivers already named (some of which are called bayous), there are the Sabine, forming the western boundary, and the Pearl, the eastern boundary, the Calcasieu, the Mermentau, the Vermilion, the Teche, the Atchafalaya, the Boeuf, the Lafourche, the Courtableau, the D'Arbonne, the Macon, the Tensas, the Amite, the Tchefuncta, the Tickfaw, the Matalbany, and a number of other streams of lesser note, constituting a natural system of navigable waterways, aggregating over 4,000 miles in length, which is unequalled in the United States and probably in the world. The state also has 1,060 square miles of land-locked bays, 1,700 square miles of inland lakes, and a river surface of over 500 square miles.
[edit]
Geology
The underlying strata of the state are of Cretaceous age and are covered by alluvial deposits of Tertiary and post-Tertiary origin. A large part of Louisiana is the creation and product of the Mississippi River. It was originally covered by an arm of the sea, and has been built up by the silt carried down the valley by the great river.
Near the coast, there are many salt domes, where salt is mined and oil is often found.
Owing to the extensive flood control measures along the Mississippi river and to natural subsidence, Louisiana is now suffering the loss of coastal land area. State and Federal government efforts to halt or reverse this phenomenon are under way; others are being sought.
[edit]
Interstate highways
Interstate 10
Interstate 12
Interstate 20
Interstate 49
Interstate 55
Interstate 59
There are proposed plans to extend Interstate 69 to the Texas/Mexico border, which will go through north-eastern Louisiana. Also, Interstate 49 is slated to be expanded north into Arkansas and east along Interstate 10 to New Orleans, replacing part of U.S. Highway 90.
[edit]
United States highways
North-south routes East-west routes
U.S. Highway 11
U.S. Highway 425
U.S. Highway 51
U.S. Highway 61
U.S. Highway 65
U.S. Highway 165
U.S. Highway 167
U.S. Highway 71
U.S. Highway 171
U.S. Highway 371
U.S. Highway 79
U.S. Highway 80
U.S. Highway 84
U.S. Highway 90
U.S. Highway 190
[edit]
Economy
The total gross state product in 2003 for Louisiana was $140 billion. Its Per Capita Personal Income was $26,312, forty-third in the nation. The state's principal agricultural outputs include seafood(It is the biggest producer of crawfish/crayfish in the world), cotton, soybeans, cattle, sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, and rice. Its industrial outputs include chemical products, petroleum and coal products, food processing, transportation equipment, paper products, and tourism.
[edit]
Demographics
See also: List of famous people from Louisiana; List of Louisiana musicians; Music of Louisiana
Historical populations
Census
year Population
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1810 76,556
1820 153,407
1830 215,739
1840 352,411
1850 517,762
1860 708,002
1870 726,915
1880 939,946
1890 1,118,588
1900 1,381,625
1910 1,656,388
1920 1,798,509
1930 2,101,593
1940 2,363,880
1950 2,683,516
1960 3,257,022
1970 3,641,306
1980 4,205,900
1990 4,219,973
2000 4,468,976
As of 2003, the state's population was 4,496,334, including approximately 215,000 native French-speakers.
The racial makeup of the state is:
62.5% White
32.5% Black
2.4% Hispanic
1.2% Asian
0.6% Native American
1.1% Mixed race
The five largest ancestries in the state are: African American (32.5%), French/French Canadian (16.2%), American (10.1%), German (7.1%), Irish (7%).
Blacks, who long made up the majority of the state's population, dominate much of the southeast, central, and northern parts of the state, particularly those parishes along the Mississippi river valley. Creoles of French ancestry and Cajuns of French-Canadian ancestry are dominant in much of the southern part of the state. Whites of Southern U.S. background predominate in the hillier areas of northern Louisiana.
As of 2000, 91.2% of Louisiana residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 4.8% speak French. Spanish is the third most spoken language at 2.5%, followed by Vietnamese at 0.6% and German at 0.2%.
[edit]
Religion
Like the other Southern states, Louisiana is mostly Protestant; however there is also a large native Catholic population in the state, particularly in the southern part of the state, which makes Louisiana unique among Southern states. The current religious affiliations of the people of Louisiana are shown in the table below:
Christian — 90%
Protestant — 60%
Baptist — 38%
Methodist — 4%
Pentecostal — 2%
Other Protestant – 16%
Roman Catholic — 30%
Other Christian — 1%
Other Religions — <1%
Non-Religious — 10%
The New Orleans area has a small but significant Jewish community.
[edit]
Important cities and towns
Population > 10,000
(urbanized area)
Alexandria
Hammond
New Iberia
Luling
Opelousas
Morgan City
West Monroe
Ruston
Thibodaux
Natchitoches
Plaquemine
Abbeville
Fort Polk (Leesville)
Bastrop
Crowley
Donaldsonville
Franklin
Bogalusa
Minden
Eunice
De Ridder
Tallulah
Jennings
Population > 100,000
(urbanized area)
Baton Rouge
Shreveport
Lafayette
Lake Charles
Houma
Monroe
Population > 1,000,000
(urbanized area)
New Orleans
New Orleans suburbs
Chalmette
Slidell
Harvey
Covington
Folsom
Mandeville
Madisonville
Kenner
Laplace
Marrero
Hahnville
Metairie
Terrytown
[edit]
Ten richest places in Louisiana
Ranked by per capita income
Mound: $92,200 (population 12, as of the 2000 census)
Oak Hills Place: $34,944
Elmwood: $34,329
Eden Isle: $31,798
Gilliam: $30,264
Shenandoah: $29,722
Westminster: $28,087
River Ridge: $27,088
Prien: $26,537
Mandeville: $26,420
For more see the complete list of places
[edit]
Education
For schools see List of school districts in Louisiana
[edit]
Colleges and universities
Centenary College of Louisiana
Dillard University
Louisiana College
Louisiana State University System
Louisiana State University at Alexandria
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, main campus)
Louisiana State University at Eunice
Louisiana State University at Shreveport
University of New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans
Our Lady of Holy Cross College
Our Lady of the Lake College
Southern University System
Southern University (Baton Rouge, main campus)
Southern University New Orleans
Tulane University
University of Louisiana System
Grambling State University
University of Louisiana at Monroe
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Louisiana Tech University
McNeese State University
Nicholls State University
Northwestern State University
Southeastern Louisiana University
Xavier University of Louisiana
[edit]
Professional sports teams
[edit]
Football
National Football League
New Orleans Saints
Arena Football League
New Orleans VooDoo
Other football leagues
New Orleans Spice - NWFL
Southwest Louisiana Swashbucklers (Lake Charles) - NIFL
Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings - AF2
Semi-Pro football Teams
Baton Rouge Riverboat Bandits - SAFL
Lake Charles RiverKats - SAFL
Minden RoughRiders - SAFL
Lafayette Bayou Bulls - SAFL
Ruston Rage - SAFL
Shreveport Steamers - SAFL
Greater New Orleans Gladiators - SAFL
Hammond Headhunters - SAFL
Louisiana (Houma) Blazing Bulldogs - SAFL
Central Louisiana Warriors - SAFL
Slidell Steelsharks - SAFL
Defunct teams
Shreveport Bombers - IPFL
Louisiana Bayou Beast - IPFL
[edit]
Baseball
Minor League baseball teams
New Orleans Zephyrs
Shreveport Sports
Alexandria Aces
Baton Rouge River Bats
Houma Hawks
New Orleans Pelicans (1887-1959)
New Orleans Creoles (Negro League) (dates?)
[edit]
Basketball
National Basketball Association:
New Orleans Jazz (1974) team moved to Salt Lake City and became the Utah Jazz in 1979
The Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans in 2002 - Now known as The New Orleans Hornets.
[edit]
Hockey
Minor League Hockey
New Orleans Brass (1997 - 2003) - ECHL
Louisiana IceGators - ECHL
Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs - CHL
[edit]
Miscellaneous information
State dog : Catahoula Leopard Dog
State bird : Eastern Brown Pelican
State flower : Magnolia
State fossil : Petrified palmwood
State tree : Bald Cypress
State mammal : Louisiana Black Bear
State wildflower : Louisiana Iris
State reptile : American Alligator
State insect: Honeybee
State crustacean : Crawfish
State amphibian: Green Tree Frog
State food: Gumbo
State songs: You Are My Sunshine, Every Man a King, and Give Me Louisiana
State Tartan
State drink: Milk
State instrument: Diatonic Accordian
State freshwater fish: Sac-au-Lait
State Gemstone: Agate
State Soil: Ruston
State Colors: Blue, White, Gold
State Pledge: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the state of Louisiana and to the motto for which it stands: A state, under God, united in purpose and ideals, confident that justice shall prevail for all of those abiding here.
The ancestors of Creoles generally came to Louisiana directly from France or from the French colonies in the Caribbean and settled in New Orleans or in South Eastern Louisiana.
The ancestors of the Cajuns are the Acadians, a French-descended people of what are now New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada. When the British won the French and Indian War, the British forced all of the citizens to take a pledge of allegiance. Most Acadians declined and emigrated from Canada, most of them fleeing to the South Western portion of Louisiana, centered in the region around Lafayette.
There is also a distinct Spanish-descended group in Louisiana. The Islenos are dirrect descendants of Canary Islanders forced to migrate by the Spanish King beginning in the mid-1770s. There were intended to help guard the eastern approaches to New Orleans from invasion by the British. They settled in what is modern-day St. Bernard Parish, in the river passes east of the city, along an old mouth of the Mississippi River which they named Terre Aux Bœufs (literally "Land of the Cows" for the cattle living there). Many of their descendants remained insulated from the city, and continued to speak an archaic version of Spanish well into the 20th Century. They still maintain contacts with the Canary Islands, and have an annual "Caldo" festival named for a native dish.
For almost 20 years there was only one amusement park in Louisiana, called Hamel's Amusement Park near Bossier City. There is now a Six Flags in New Orleans East.
Since Louisiana is under constant threat from hurricanes, the Louisiana State Police is sponsoring a contraflow lane reversal program in order to evacuate the New Orleans metropolitan area as quickly as possible.
[edit]
References
^ Sturdevent, William C. (1967): Early Indian Tribes, Cultures, and Linguistic Stocks, Smithsonian Institution Map (Eastern United States).
Yiannopoulos, A.N., The Civil Codes of Louisiana (reprinted from Civil Law System: Louisiana and Comparative law, A Coursebook: Texts, Cases and Materials, 3d Edition; similar to version in preface to Louisiana Civil Code, ed. by Yiannopoulos)
Rodolfo Batiza, The Louisiana Civil Code of 1808: Its Actual Sources and
Present Relevance, 46 TUL. L. REV. 4 (1971); Rodolfo Batiza, Sources of the Civil Code of 1808, Facts and Speculation: A Rejoinder, 46 TUL. L. REV. 628 (1972); Robert A. Pascal, Sources of the Digest of 1808: A Reply to Professor Batiza, 46 TUL. L. REV. 603 (1972); Joseph M. Sweeney, Tournament of Scholars Over the Sources of the Civil Code of 1808,46 TUL. L. REV. 585 (1972).
Kinsella, N. Stephan, A Civil Law to Common Law Dictionary, 54 Louisiana Law Review 1265 (1994)
[edit]
See also
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
LouisianaLouisiana Superdome
Avery Island
List of school districts in Louisiana
Hurricane Katrina
[edit]
External links
Official State of Louisiana website
U.S. Census Bureau
Photos of Louisiana - Terra Galleria
State of Louisiana
Regions
Acadiana - Florida Parishes - Greater New Orleans - Northwest Louisiana
Largest cities
Alexandria - Baton Rouge - Bossier City - Houma - Kenner - Lafayette - Lake Charles - Metairie - Monroe - New Iberia - New Orleans - Shreveport
Parishes
Acadia - Allen - Ascension - Assumption - Avoyelles - Beauregard - Bienville - Bossier - Caddo - Calcasieu - Caldwell - Cameron - Catahoula - Claiborne - Concordia - De Soto - East Baton Rouge - East Carroll - East Feliciana - Evangeline - Franklin - Grant - Iberia - Iberville - Jackson - Jefferson - Jefferson Davis -
La Salle - Lafayette - Lafourche - Lincoln - Livingston - Madison - Morehouse - Natchitoches - Orleans - Ouachita - Plaquemines - Pointe Coupee - Rapides -
Red River - Richland - Sabine - St. Bernard - St. Charles - St. Helena - St. James - St. John the Baptist - St. Landry - St. Martin - St. Mary - St. Tammany - Tangipahoa - Tensas - Terrebonne - Union - Vermilion - Vernon - Washington - Webster - West Baton Rouge - West Carroll - West Feliciana - Winn
Political divisions of the United States
States Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming
Federal district District of Columbia
Insular areas American Samoa | Baker Island | Guam | Howland Island | Jarvis Island | Johnston Atoll | Kingman Reef | Midway Atoll | Navassa Island | Northern Mariana Islands | Palmyra Atoll | Puerto Rico | Virgin Islands | Wake Island
