New Orleans is a major US port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans was founded on 7 May 1718, and it was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, the regent of France at the time. The colony developed into a large city, and it was ceded to Spain in 1763 as a result of the French and Indian War. The city's disaffected French and German settler population attempted to rise up against Spanish rule in the Louisiana Rebellion of 1768, hoping to return the city to French control, but Alejandro O'Reilly crushed the uprising.
The city was under Spanish control until 1803, when it was retroceded to France under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. That same year, Napoleon I sold Louisiana to the United States, and the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Cajuns, African slaves, and Haitian refugees fleeing the Haitian Revolution, with Irish, German, and Italian immigrants arriving in later decades. Large sugar and cotton plantations developed on the outskirts of the city, and the vital city was defended against a British siege in 1815. The city became home to the largest slave market in the American South in the years before the abolition of the slave trade in 1808, and the city became the wealthiest and most-populous city in the USA during the 1830s and 1840s as the population doubled. While the city was diverse, it was a stronghold for the conservative Democratic Party, which had virtually outlawed manumission of slaves by 1852.
In 1861, Louisiana seceded from the United States to join the Confederate States of America, and the French Creole elite feared that their dominance would be challenged by the American Civil War. Indeed, following Benjamin F. Butler's capture of the city in 1862, Butler became nicknamed "Beast Butler" for threatening to treat secessionist women like prostitutes, for allowing his troops to loot the city, and for abolishing French-language instruction in schools. Federal representatives would enforce the English-only policies after the war, and the usage of French faded during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as more immigrants arrived, as English became the lingua franca and the language of business, and as French-language newspapers closed down. In 1902, howeved, 1/4 of the population regularly spoke French and 1/2 was fluent in French, and the French Creole culture survived due to the Mardi Gras celebrations, the preservation of the French Quarter, and the survival of the unique French Creole culture. New Orleans was occupied by the US Army during Reconstruction, and it was plagued by violence as White League insurgents attempted to challenge African-American voting rights and disrupt Republican Party gatherings. The White League succeeded in restoring the Democratic Party to power through its terror tactics, and the Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876. In 1877, federal troops withdrew from New Orleans, and New Orleans would implement Jim Crow laws and segregation. During the late 1800s, New Orleans slipped from its high rank among American cities, and it failed to regain its economic pre-eminence and vigor. By 1950, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta were bigger than New Orleans, and the city's growth rate lagged. Tourism would become the city's economic mainstay as its population slipped into poverty, exacerbated by natural disasters such as hurricanes.
In 2015, the New Orleans metropolitan area had a population of 1,262,888 people, with 60.2% being African-American, 33% white, 5.2% Hispanic, and 2.9% Asian (mostly Vietnamese). New Orleans has a strong Catholic tradition resulting from French and Spanish rule, but Protestantism is also present in the city due to America's influence on the city during the 19th century.
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