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
Slavery in Spain behind those compared with other nations. Spanish colonization was the focus from 1500-1800 in the Americas. By 1800, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was slowly starting to decline, and Spain appeared to rush transporting slaves into Cuba, one of their biggest colonies. Through this, one can compare differences in ethnicity of former Spanish colonies as Cuba has a much higher African descent unlike Mexico which only appears to have received little to none before independence from Spain. 17. ^ Phillips, William D. Jr (November 2013). "The Middle Ages Series: Slaveri in Medieval and Early Modern Ilberia." University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 83,