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Colony of Louisiana

In the 1690s the policy of the government of Louis XIV became openly expansionist, and it aimed at hemming in the British east of the Appalachians. The French hoped that by extending French interests beyond the St Lawrence valley and the basin of the Great Lakes, to include the whole Mississippi basin to the Gulf of Mexico, English settlement might be contained within a narrow strip along the Atlantic seaboard. In 1699 French merchant Pierre Le Moyne D’Iberville recommended immediate colonization and exploitation of Louisiana. He based his recommendations less on natural resources, which alone would hardly have warranted a generous effort, than on the urgent need to counter the threat of imminent English expansion from the Carolinas.

Related Biographies

AVAUGOUR, LOUIS D’
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BEAUHARNOIS DE LA BOISCHE, CHARLES DE, Marquis de BEAUHARNOIS
CAVELIER DE LA SALLE, RENÉ-ROBERT
HERIOT, GEORGE
LAUMET, dit de Lamothe Cadillac, ANTOINE
LE MOYNE DE BIENVILLE, JEAN-BAPTISTE
LE MOYNE D’IBERVILLE ET D’ARDILLIÈRES, PIERRE
PAYEN DE NOYAN, PIERRE
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Other Resources

Colonial Louisiana. Content archived on 21 Mar. 2024
French Colonial Louisiana - Know Louisiana. Content archived on 15 Aug. 2018
History of Louisiana - Wikipedia
How the Louisiana Purchase Changed the World | History | Smithsonian. Content archived on 26 Jan. 2025
Louisiana (New France) - Wikipedia
Louisiana Time Line Chronological Timetable of Events - Worldatlas.com. Content archived on 11 Aug. 2020
Louisiana as a French Colony - Louisiana: European Explorations and the Louisiana Purchase | Digital Collections | Library of Congress. Content archived on 2 Feb. 2025
New France | Definition, History, & Map | Britannica.com
The French in New Orleans - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com. Content archived on 25 Mar. 2018

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