Louisiana

Louisiana

File:Us-la.png (In Detail) (Full size)
State nickname: Pelican State
File:US la highlighted map.jpg (In Detail)
Capital	Baton Rouge
Area  - Total  - Land  - Water  - % water	Ranked 31st 134,382 km² 112,927 km² 21,455 km² 16%
Population  - Total (2000)  - Density	Ranked 22nd 4,468,976 33/km²
Admittance into Union  - Order  - Date	18th April 30, 1812
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Latitude Longitude	29°N to 33°N 89°W to 94°W
Width Length Elevation  -Highest  -Mean  -Lowest	210 km 610 km   163 meters 30 meters -2.5 meters
ISO 3166-2:	US-LA

Louisiana is a southern state of the United States of America. It uses the U.S. postal abbreviation LA.

Louisiana is bordered to the west by the state of Texas, to the north by Arkansas, to the east by the state of Mississippi, and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.

History

Louisiana was long inhabited by Native American tribes including the Chocktaw, Tchopitoulas, and (list?) others. The first European explorers to visit what is now Louisiana was a Spanish expedition in 1528 led by Panfilo de Navaez 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 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 little European settlement north of present-day Saint Louis, Missouri other than fur-trappers and small trading posts. See also: French colonization of the Americas

Initially Biloxi, Mississippi functioned as the capital city 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.

In 1800 France's Napoleon Bonaparte re-aquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonse, although this was kept secret for some two years.

In 1803 the United States of America purchased the Louisiana territory from the French Republic.

See: Louisiana Purchase

The southern portion of the Louisiana Territory was granted statehood within the USA in 1812.

There are still remnants of its former status as a possession of France, including: the use of a civil law legal system, 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.

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 some portion of the population had Union sympathies, unusually the portions of Lousiana under Federal control were recognized as a state within the Union and elected representatives who were sent to the congress in Washington, D.C. through the rest of the war.

Law and Government

The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge and its governor is Murphy J. "Mike" Foster (Republican). Its two U.S. senators are John B. Breaux and Mary Landrieu, (both Democrats).

Geography

See List of Louisiana parishes

The Mississippi River empties out of the southern portion of the state into the Gulf of Mexico.

Economy

The total gross state product in 1999 for Louisiana was $129 billion, placing it 24^th in the nation. Its Per Capita Personal Income was $23,334, 45^th in the nation. The state's principal agricultural outputs include seafood, 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.

Demographics

As of 2000, the state's population was 4,468,976.

Important Cities and Towns

New Orleans Baton Rouge Shreveport Lake Charles

Lafayette Covington Alexandria Slidell

Education

Colleges and Universities

Centenary College of Louisiana Dillard University Grambling State University Louisiana College Louisiana State University System Louisiana State University at Alexandria Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge Louisiana State University at Eunice Louisiana State University at Shreveport Louisiana Tech University Loyola University New Orleans McNeese State University Nicholls State University

Northwestern State University of Louisiana Our Lady of Holy Cross College Our Lady of the Lake College Southeastern Louisiana University Southern University System Southern University Baton Rouge Southern University New Orleans Tulane University University of Louisiana System University of Louisiana at Monroe University of Louisiana at Lafayette University of New Orleans Xavier University of Louisiana

Professional Sports Teams

New Orleans Saints, National Football League Minor League baseball teams New Orleans Zephyrs Shreveport Swamp Dragons Alexandria Aces New Orleans Pelicans (1887-1959) New Orleans Creoles (Negro League) (dates?)

National Basketball Association: New Orleans Jazz (1970s) (dates?) The Charlotte Hornets are scheduled to move to New Orleans in 2002.

Miscellaneous Information

state dog : Catahoula Leopard Dog state bird : Brown Pelican state flower: Magnolia state tree : Bald Cypress state mammal : Louisiana Black Bear state wild flower : Louisiana Iris state reptile : Alligator state insect: Honeybee state crustacean : Crawfish state amphibian: Green Tree Frog

Two separate historically Francophone communities exist in Louisiana. 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 place named Louisiana in the State of Missouri: see Louisiana, Missouri.

USS Louisiana was named in honor of this state.

External Links

• http://www.state.la.us