french louisiana
Louisiana (French: La Louisiane ) was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from the 17th century to the 18th century, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. Originally covering an expansive territory that included most of the drainage basin of the Mississippi River and stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains, Louisiana was divided into two regions, known as Upper Louisiana (French: Haute-Louisiane ), which began north of the Arkansas River, and Lower Louisiana (French: Basse-Louisiane ). The present-day U.S. state of Louisiana is named for the historical region, although it occupies only a small portion of the territory claimed by the French.
Explored under the reign of Louis XIV of France and named by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle in his honor in 1682, Louisiana was not greatly developed due to a lack of human and financial resources. The French defeat in the Seven Years' War ended with France being forced to cede the eastern part of territory in 1763 to the victorious British, and the western part to Spain as compensation for that country's loss of Florida. France regained sovereignty of the western territory in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1800. However, Napoleon Bonaparte decided to sell the territory to the United States in 1803, ending France's presence in Louisiana.
Part of this possession was later ceded to Britain in the Treaty of 1818. This section lies above the 49th parallel in a portion of what is now present day Manitoba and Saskatchewan.