Louisiana (New Spain)

Spanish colonial Louisiana
*Luisiana*
	Spanish colonial Louisiana ; Luisiana
	District of New Spain
Cross of Burgundy	Coat of arms
	Spanish Louisana in 1762
Capital city	Nueva Orleans
History
Political subdivisions	Upper Louisiana;; Lower Louisiana
Today part of	Canada; United States

Louisiana (

DeSoto claiming the Mississippi, as depicted in the United States Capitol rotunda

Louisiana (New Spain) Media

Marcha Real (1915)
Spanish map from 1817 of the Internal Provinces of New Spain, which, in addition to these provinces, includes the entire territory that was part of Spanish Louisiana (or Luciana).
An 1815 engraving of the Plaza de Armas of New Orleans. From left are the Cabildo, St. Louis Cathedral, and the Presbytère.
Señora de Balderes and her baby, family native of Nueva Orleans, Spanish colonial Louisiana, by José Francisco de Salazar (painter born in Mérida, Mexico), ca. 1790. The family lived on Calle Real street in what is now called the "French Quarter". Louisiana State Museum
Portrait of Marianne Celeste Dragon or Dracos, by José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza, c. 1795
Areas of Spanish Louisiana around 1803 overlayed over the current American states that it encompassed.
Calle de San Luis in the French Quarter of New Orleans
The French flag is removed and the American flag is hoisted in New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase. In the background is the Cathedral of New Orleans, built in 1794 during Spanish rule. To the left is the Spanish Cabildo. Louisiana State Museum.

Spanish: Luisianacode: es is deprecated ) was an administrative district of the Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1763 to 1801. It included the area west of the Mississippi River basin, plus New Orleans. Spain got the territory from France, which had named it La Louisiane after King Louis XIV in 1682. It is sometimes called Spanish Louisiana. The district was given back to France, under the terms of the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800) and the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801). In 1802, King Charles 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 at the Cabildo in New Orleans on 30 November 1803. This was just three weeks before the formalities of cession from France to the United States pursuant to the Louisiana Purchase.