Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama Biloxi became the second capital of Louisiana, and also celebrated French customs. Due to fear of tides and hurricanes, in 1723, the capital was moved to New Orleans, founded in 1718. That city also later started a Mardi Gras celebration. In 1763, Mobile came under British control. Its restrictions on free blacks and racial segregation caused many Creoles to leave Mobile and move west towards New Orleans. In 1780, Spain took control of the Mobile area in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The Carnival celebration incorporated the Spanish custom of torch-lit parades on Twelfth Night (January 6, also known
Filipinos in the French military Filipinos in the French military In 1858, when the Philippines was a Spanish colony, France and Spain invaded Vietnam. A number of French troops involved in this campaign became casualties as a result of contracting illnesses such as cholera, dysentery, tropical diseases, and rickets. In order to deal with the manpower shortage which resulted from this situation, the French consul in Manila, the colonial capital of the Philippines, was given permission by the Spanish government to recruit nine hundred Indians, as Filipinos were then known, for the French navy and a sufficient number of men to form an infantry company