New
Orleans was established by French settlers
on the mouth of the Mississippi-Missouri river system in 1718. Large
areas of underbrush was cleared but mosquito-infested swamps caused
outbreaks of disease amongst the workers. Two severe hurricanes in
1721 and 1722 also hampered developments.
New Orleans was designated the capital of Louisiana in 1722. At that
time there were 470 people living in the town. Local crops included
tobacco, indigo, rice and vegetables.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), Spain received New
Orleans and the Louisiana Territory
west of the Mississippi. In 1803 it was returned to France and three
years later it was sold to the United States. Over the next 50 years
New Orleans established itself as America's main cotton port. With
over 400 Mississippi River steamboats, New Orleans was the world's
fourth most important port by 1840.
In the middle of the 19th century New Orleans became popular with
German and Irish
immigrants and the population grew to over 116,000 by 1850. No proper
sewerage system existed and there were several outbreaks of cholera
and yellow fever, which killed 8,000 people
in 1853.
By the beginning of the 20th century, unable to compete with the railroads,
the river steamboats had almost disappeared. It now had a population
of 287,140 but growth had been smaller than other cities and in sixty
years had dropped from 3rd to 12th largest in the United States.
New Orleans
in 1890
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