Louisiana (New Spain) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Spanish colonial Louisiana Luisiana
District of New Spain
← 1763–1801 →
Cross of Burgundy Coat of arms
Spanish Louisana in 1762
Capital city		Nueva Orleans
History
-	Acquisition from France	10 February 1763
-	Return to France	21 March 1801
Political subdivisions		Upper Louisiana; Lower Louisiana
Today part of		Canada  United States

Louisiana (Spanish: Luisiana) was an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1763 to 1801. It included the area west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans. Spain got the territory from France, which had named it La Louisiane after King Louis XIV in 1682. It is sometimes called Spanish Louisiana. The district was given back to France, under the terms of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800) and the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801). In 1802, King Charles IV of Spain wrote a royal bill on 14 October. This changed the transfer and outlined the conditions.

However, Spain agreed to still run the colony until French officials came and made the transfer official (1803). The ceremony happened at the Cabildo in New Orleans on 30 November 1803. This was just three weeks before the formalities of cession from France to the United States pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase.

Images for kids

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  Señora de Balderes and her baby, family native of Nueva Orleans, Spanish colonial Louisiana, by José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza (painter born in Mérida, Mexico), ca. 1790. The family lived on Royal Street in what is now called the "French Quarter". Louisiana State Museum

See also

In Spanish: Luisiana española para niños