Fisherman Jerry Murphy and his crew snagged something unexpected while trawling the Gulf of Mexico one afternoon in 1993 . At first glance , the fishing net appeared weight down down with rock and debris . Upon closer inspection , some of those sway were in reality pile of silvery coins , which had combine together while underwater . realize that he may have stumbled onto a rich sea treasure trove , Murphy dialed up hislawyerto reach rights to the loot , then contacted maritime chronicle experts to square off the source of the coins [ reservoir : McConnaughey ] . A twelvemonth later , researchers conclude that Murphy ’s find – which occurred , ironically , in a sauceboat named Mistake – was the ruins of a warship called El Cazador , or " The Hunter , " that disappear at ocean in 1784 .
El Cazador set out from Veracruz , Mexico , dilute down with 19 oodles ( 17 metric tons ) of newly issued silverreales , or Spanish currency . King Carlos II of Spain ordered the money to be transported from the mint in Mexico to New Orleans , the upper-case letter of Spain ’s Louisiana colony . The power take to pay his soldiers and government activity officials in direction of the city , but the theme money circulating in New Orleans had lost much of its value .
Not amazingly , the metropolis that lives by the motto " laissez les bon temps rouler " ( let the good times roll ) did n’t always follow the letter of the legal philosophy during compound times . fix in a relatively outback locale and settled by a fascinating jumble of immigrants from France , Spain , Africa and the West Indies , New Orleans quickly modernise its signature culture – and a bolt of Cajun corruption . A rash ofcounterfeitingand a shortage of hard currency undervalue the cash in circulation , and left the Spanish regime scrambling to compensate its employee .
On Jan. 11 , 1784 , El Cazador leave Mexican shore , headed for the bayou . In June , the ship was declared escape , suffer in murky depth for nearly 210 years . The more than 400,000 silver reales on board was n’t on the nose pocket variety for the Spanish regime . That improbable wreck gave King Carlos hesitate about whether the Louisiana Territory that Spain win from the French 20 years originally was a worthwhile investment .
The Founding of New Orleans
King Carlos II of Spain was cousin-german to King Louis XV of France through the Bourbon ancestry . In 1762 , Louis ceded theLouisiana Territoryto Carlos with theTreaty of Fontainebleau . The land Duncan Grant was n’t motivated by fond familial regard ; Louis sought keep his treasured Louisiana Territory out of British hands . The French had misplace the Seven Years ' warfare to the British , and King Louis foresaw the forthcoming reverberation . The next yr , Britain and France sign theTreaty of Paristhat finish the state of war formally and gave the English all of Louisiana east of the Mississippi River – except for New Orleans .
In 1682 , explorerRobert Cavelier de La Sallediscovered the oral cavity of the Mississippi near present - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. New Orleans and named the body politic " Louisiana " in honour of King Louis XIV . De La Salle failed to establish a last colony , butPierre LeMoyne Sieur d’Ibervillearrived 17 years by and by and started Fort Maurepas about 70 miles ( 112 kilometers ) northeast of New Orleans . Hearing the newsworthiness , King Louis XV granted permit to start a French colony , and New Orleans became the capital letter urban center in 1718 .
New Orleans ' geographics had its part of pros and cons . Hordes of ] mosquitoes attract to the waterlogged city ’s climate bred disease , let in yellow fever and smallpox . Yet New Orleans was prime commercial literal estate . Farmer and traders could send their goods down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico via New Orleans , then transport it anywhere in the world . Spain overwork its control over the port and levied expensive tariff for its purpose . But those export earnings did n’t insulate New Orleans or the Spanish political science from the personnel casualty of money that sink with El Cazador . As more people settled in the sprawl Territory , it became even more clunky – and costly – for Spain to get by .
Around that time , France started eyeing its former territory again . Napoleontook the French throne by coup in 1799 , and he looked to the West to expand his conglomerate . On Oct. 1 , 1800 , Spain and France signed the secretTreaty of San Ildefonso . With it , Napoleon cut a tidy sum to give the King of Spain ’s Logos - in - jurisprudence the Tuscan commode in exchange for bring back the Louisiana Territory to French ascendance . At the same time , difficulty was brew in French - owned Hispaniola that would indirectly alter the United States ' fortune evermore .
The Haitian Revolution and Louisiana Purchase
Napoleon dreamed of creating a westerly empire pore on international trade . The French Caribbean islands and Hispaniola ( Haiti and the Dominican Republic ) could farm sugar , coffeeand tropical produce . With New Orleans as its trading fastness in North America , Napoleon would maintain economic power over the United States [ source : Lachance ] . However , a slave uprising lead by Toussaint L’Ouverture in Saint - Domingue ( the former name for Haiti ) scud those imperial plans .
The only successful slave insurrection in story , Gallic forces could n’t quell the Haitian rebellion . Napoleon slay 20,000 soldiers to restore peacefulness and monastic order , but a combination of chicken fever and unyielding solidarity among the former slaves defeated the armed services ’s efforts . By late 1802 , France had lost an estimated 55,000 men [ source : Lachance ] . Since Saint Domingue was France ’s most lucrative colony in the West , Napoleon consider it a key asset for build his Caribbean empire [ root : Rodriguez ] . Cutting his losings , Napoleon abandoned the westerly strategy and decided to refill France ’s dwindle down treasury for impending war with Britain .
While Napoleon sorted out his imperial problems , another legendary leader also contemplated expanding his nation ’s horizons . President Thomas Jefferson viewed French dominance over the port at New Orleans as a deterrent to American settlement in the West . Jefferson did n’t want to fight with France over the territory , instead seek a diplomatic solution . He send James Monroe as his envoi to the Gallic government with an offer to buy New Orleans for no more than $ 3 million .
Instead of haggling over the interface metropolis , Napoleon storm Jefferson by upping the ante . He put up the entire Louisiana Territory for sales event – no more , no less . The exacting constructionist president was conflict at first with the offering since the Constitution did n’t include allowances for the Union government to accept land purchases . To get around that , he frame up the deal as a accord between the United States and France . The strategy worked , and Jefferson buy the tremendous belt of realm between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains for $ 15 million on April 30 , 1803 .
Priced at barely four cents per acres , the 828,000 straightforward mil ( 2.1 million straightforward kilometers ) sign on over in Jefferson’sLouisiana Purchase Treatyeffectively duplicate the size of the country . In less than three years , Louisiana slide by from Spain to France to the United States . Though it took an unlikely shipwreck , state of war and a hard worker uprising to get there , Jefferson seal the enceinte land plenty in U.S. account with passive diplomacy and a key signature .
