Colonial history of the United States Lower Louisiana. This vast tract was first settled at Mobile and Biloxi around 1700, and continued to grow when 7,000 French immigrants founded New Orleans in 1718. Settlement proceeded very slowly; New Orleans became an important port as the gateway to the Mississippi River, but there was little other economic development because the city lacked a prosperous hinterland. In 1763, Louisiana was ceded to Spain around New Orleans and west of the Mississippi River. In the 1780s, the western border of the newly independent United States stretched to the Mississippi River. The United States reached an agreement with Spain for
An Act to promote the French language in Québec law also promoted the French language, by: Bill 63 fell short of the expectations of many citizens (among them many Quebec Nationalists) who expected that French would become the common public language of all Quebec residents. The main criticism of the law was that it kept in place the existing educational system, under which all Quebec residents could send their children to schools whose language of instruction was either French or English. Opposition to the law led to the coalition Mouvement Québec français. In 1974, under the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa, the act was superseded by Bill 22. An