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
History of the French in Baltimore 5,383 French-Americans resided in Baltimore city, 0.9% of the population. An additional 1,007 people, 0.2% of the population, were of French-Canadian descent. As of September 2014, immigrants from France were the forty-fifth largest foreign-born population in Baltimore and the French language (including Patois and Cajun) was the fourth most commonly spoken language after English. French Creole was the thirtieth most spoken language other than English. The French and Indian War was the North American theater of the Seven Years' War, lasting from 1754 to 1763. There was intense fighting between the troops of British America and the French inhabitants of