GUIDING QUESTION: What impact did France have on the settlement of Louisiana?
Supporting Questions:
~ What role did Iberville and Bienville play in the settlement of the colony?
~ What geographical features affected the settlement?
~ Was the relationship between the French and Native Americans a positive or negative one?
~ Who founded New Orleans?
~ What advantages did the site chosen for New Orleans have?
Iberville is Selected
La Salle did not establish a colony on the Gulf Coast. But his claim in the name of France set off a chain of
events that led to the first French colony.
When the other European kings heard that France had claimed the Mississippi, they reacted strongly.
France’s claim was a threat to the New World colonies of Spain and Great Britain. The Spanish government
built a fort on the Gulf of Mexico at Pensacola Bay to protect its claims. The British hoped to build a colony at
the mouth of the Mississippi River.
When Louis XIV heard of these plans, he knew a French fort must be built to guard the Mississippi. A
strong military leader with knowledge of North America was needed. The wilderness experience of French
Canadian officers prepared them for this challenge. The king chose one of those commanders—Pierre Le
Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville.
To join him, Iberville chose his younger brother, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. Although
only eighteen, Bienville was an experienced and battle-scarred sailor. The two brothers would leave their names
on the map and the history of Louisiana.
Fort Maurepas
Iberville stopped for supplies at a French colony in the West Indies and then set sail for the Gulf of
Mexico. Spanish soldiers had finished their fort at Pensacola Bay just months before the French arrived. When
Iberville sailed into the Gulf of Mexico, he realized the Spanish held the best harbor near the Mississippi River.
Continuing westward, Iberville came upon islands near the coast of present-day Mississippi. He named
one Ship Island because it provided a good harbor for their ships. They built a few primitive huts for a
temporary camp; then they set out to find the mouth of the Mississippi. Iberville described the discovery in his
journal: “March 3, Mardi Gras Day . . . I went up this river . . . two leagues and a half above the mouth it forks
into three branches.”
To make sure that this was the Mississippi, Iberville and Bienville questioned the local Indians. One
chief told them of the “speaking bark” left by another Frenchman. Bienville offered a reward of an axe for the
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message. Soon, another chief brought him a letter Tonti had left for La Salle in 1685. La Salle never saw that
letter because he never made it back to the Mississippi. But more than thirteen years later, the unclaimed letter
spoke an encouraging message to the French explorers. They knew they had found the great Mississippi River.
The mouth of the river was a poor location for Iberville’s fort. The Gulf Coast offered a better harbor for
ships and seemed to have better land for a colony. There were plenty of trees on the coast to build the fort. The
completed fort, built near present-day Biloxi in Mississippi, was named Fort Maurepas (MOR eh PAH) to honor
a French government official.
French and the Native Americans
The local Indians were also a challenge to the French. In the beginning, the Indians shared their food and
skills with the strangers. A young ship’s carpenter later wrote about the music and dancing the two cultures
shared. A young soldier had brought along a special possession, his violin. With his music, the soldiers taught
the Indians to “figure dance.” In return, the Indians invited the soldiers to learn their dances. Through trade and
gift-giving, Native Americans acquired a taste for such European items as sophisticated weapons, liquor, cloth,
glass beads, and other trinkets. Europeans used their access to the supply of these goods to increase Native
American dependency on them. Later, when the soldiers were starving, they were invited to live with the
Indians.
In spite of this acceptance, the French treated the Indians as conquered people. They took Indians as
slaves and started conflicts between tribes. The French believed that if the Indian tribes fought each other, they
would not join together against the French.
Bienville and New Orleans
While Iberville returned to France for additional provisions and settlers, his brother, Jean-Baptiste Le
Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, continued to explore the Mississippi River, but Iberville still insisted that the river
was not navigable. Bienville had to delay creating a permanent settlement on the lower Mississippi River until
1718, when he founded the city of New Orleans on a crescent-shaped section of the river 100 miles from the
mouth. He named France's newest settlement in honor of the ruling regent, the Duc d'Orleans.
The site chosen for New Orleans had many advantages. Because it sits where distance between the river
and Lake Pontchartrain is shortest, Louisiana Indians had long used the area as a depot and market for goods
carried between the two waterways. The narrow strip of land also aided rapid troop movements, and the river's
curve slowed ships approaching from downriver and exposed them to gunfire.
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