Section 1
To fully grasp the impact of Katrina on the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, many factors need to be considered. The region’s uniqueness from historical, geographical, political and socio-cultural perspectives plays a critical role when one tries to wrap their arms around an event as significant as Katrina and the affect she had on the people who experienced her.
Like many other cities whose locations are determined by geography and proximity to resources, the site of New Orleans has been constrained by the nuances of the Mississippi River and the Delta system which she feeds and modifies.
In the 17th century, the French had secured much of northern North America in the northeastern United States and Canada through occupation of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes. In an effort to prevent the English access to the eastern coast, a French strategic objective of controlling the Mississippi and her tributaries was established. For control of the Mississippi, controlling the access to the Gulf was required. The key to securing the Mississippi was the ability to secure access to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico.
Fathers Joliet and Marquette reportedly traveled down the Mississippi nearly to the Delta and upon their return spoke about the Great Stream in the South. 9 years later, the first French official to explore the lower Mississippi was Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682. La Salle claimed all lands from the river basin from the Appalachians to the Rockies. He named the land Louisiana after King Louis XIV. For 17 years, there was little French initiative to explore or establish the lands claimed by La Salle.
When rumors in the northern French colonies arose suggesting that England intended to colonize the areas claimed by LaSalle, Minister Pontchartrain dispatched Pierre LeMoyne d’Iberville, a reputable naval officer, was told to explore the Gulf Coast areas. Iberville's instructions were to relocate the mouth of the Mississippi and to establish a colony at some strategic point. Iberville and his brother, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, sailed from Brest with a tiny fleet in October of 1698. They anchored in Biloxi Bay 6 months later accompanied by about 200 colonists. In April of 1699, Iberville selected the site of present-day Ocean Springs, MS to build Fort Maurepas as the first settlement by the French for Colonial Louisiana.
Iberville, Bienville and about 50 men, in 2 barges and a few canoes, followed the coast and entered the Mississippi on March 1st, 1699. With the aid of the Choctaw Indians, they traveled up to the ‘territory of the Houmas,’ some distance north of the site of the present city of Baton Rouge. On the way up the river, Iberville camped for a short time on or near the spot where the city of New Orleans had its beginnings. Bienville noted the advantages of the location and this impression was confirmed during years of constant passage back and forth between the Mississippi and Biloxi or Mobile. In 1718, Bienville founded, ‘on the most beautiful crescent of the river,’ a town, which he foresaw, would be the commercial capital of the Mississippi Valley. New Orleans was born. The early years of the city were troubled by storms and flooding. In 1719, the river rose to an ‘unprecedented height’ covering the new site with inches of water. In 1722, a hurricane destroyed 30 houses, the church, and the hospital.
Louisiana became a French crown colony in 1731. In 1762, Louisiana was ceded to Spain as a result of the French and Indian War, and Great Britain gained control of Florida which extended to the east bank of the Mississippi. During this period Acadians, driven from Nova Scotia by the British, began migrating to Louisiana.
During the eighteenth century, New Orleans struggled for identity. From French to Spanish to English domination, with each regime imparting its own character and politics, the city’s growth was slow and difficult. Differing social philosophies and cultural imperatives prevailed during each occupation, taking root, changing for the next, only to leave a continually evolving cultural dynamic.
With the growing city surrounded by the marshes of the bayous and the river, New Orleans came to be an island to itself. Here lies the beginning of the blending and merging of diverse architecture, food, music, and art.
In the 1790’s, with the emergence of the cotton gin, improvements in sugar refining processes, and the expansion of rice and tobacco crops, New Orleans became the hub for processing, distribution, and shipping of local goods throughout the country via the Mississippi River. Growth as a business center spurred even more diversity as it integrated modernity with the city’s proceeding historical socio-cultural precedents. With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, New Orleans became part of the new United States. Annexation removed political and economic constraints to growth. Its population grew from 8,000 to approximately 170,000 by 1861. By 1830, New Orleans was America’s third largest city and the fifth largest city by 1860.
In summary, in less than 100 years Louisiana had passed through 6 changes of government. Originally governed directly by the French crown, in 1712, Louis XIV ceded governorship to Antoine Crozat, Marquis du Châtel, a wealthy merchant. Later, in 1717 it was transferred to the Compagnie de l'Occident, presided over by the wealthy Scottish merchant and financier, John Law. Under Law’s edict, Bienville was made commander of the new settlement. In 1731, the Company ceded it back to the Government of France.
Spain acquired the territory in 1762. In 1800, the King of Spain, under a secret treaty with Napoleon, relinquished the province back to France. The Americans eventually learned of the treaty and were alarmed that Napoleon was now in control of the Mississippi River. Thomas Jefferson initiated negotiations for the purchase of the territory, which occurred in 1803.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, New Orleans was reckoned one of the most important of North American seaports. In 1802, 158 American, 104 Spanish, and 3 French vessels sailed from the harbor. In the following year the import tonnage showed an increase from 35 to 37%.
On March 25th, 1804, the United States Congress divided the Province of Louisiana into 2 parts: the upper part was annexed to the Indiana Territory, and the lower part, which corresponds in boundaries approximately to what is now the State of Louisiana became the Territory of Orleans.
The Territory of Orleans’ government was entrusted to a governor, jointly with a council of 13 freeholders to be selected by him, with the judicial powers to be exercised by a superior court and other inferior courts as the council might establish. The judges of the former were to be appointed by the President of the United States.
On October 1st, 1804, the new government went into operation. Thomas Jefferson appointed William Charles Cole Claiborne as governor. Various comments cited at the time suggested that the people were displeased at having the legislative council appointed rather than elected. Claiborne was tasked with introducing the forms of democratic government, and it was some years before the heterogeneous population of New Orleans could be regarded as fit to exercise all the functions of American citizenship. In February of 1805, the Territorial Council furnished the city with a charter.
Thus, with the rule of 6 governments in less than a hundred years, the advent and growth of the city’s influence, the influx of residents with vast cultural differences resultant in her growth, New Orleans and the areas of the Gulf Coast became flamboyantly distinctive from her fellow American cities or regions.
In culture,
