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
Monarchism in France authority was rejected by most of Catholic France. Next in line to Henry in the throne of France was his elderly uncle Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon. The cardinal had been detained by Henry III for having been the royal candidate of the Catholic League and Spain. After Henry III's death he fell in Henry IV's custody. The Parlement of Paris proclaimed the cardinal as King Charles X of France in 1589. But despite their similar names, the French Parlement is not an equivalent of the British Parliament, which had the power to choose the king and regulate the succession. The