| Spanish colonial Louisiana Luisiana | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District ofNew Spain | |||||||||
| 1763–1801 | |||||||||
 Coat of arms | |||||||||
_orthographic_projection.svg) Spanish Louisana in 1762 | |||||||||
| Capital | Nueva Orleans | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 10 February 1763 | |||||||||
| 21 March 1801 | |||||||||
| Political subdivisions | Upper Louisiana; Lower Louisiana | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of |  Canada United States | ||||||||
Louisiana (Spanish:Luisiana) was an administrative district of theViceroyalty ofNew Spain from 1763 to 1801. It included the area west of theMississippi River basin, plusNew Orleans.Spain got the territory fromFrance, which had named itLa Louisiane after KingLouis XIV in 1682. It is sometimes calledSpanish Louisiana. The district was given back to France, under the terms of theThird Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800) and theTreaty of Aranjuez (1801). In 1802, KingCharles IV of Spain wrote a royal bill on 14 October. This changed the transfer and outlined the conditions.
However, Spain agreed to still run the colony until French officials came and made the transfer official (1803). The ceremony happened atthe Cabildo inNew Orleans on 30 November 1803. This was just three weeks before the formalities of cession fromFrance to theUnited States pursuant to theLouisiana Purchase.
