Essay On Fort Maurepas: The Conquest Of Louisiana

Fort Maurepas: The Conquest of Louisiana In the 1680s, Sieur de La Salle became the first European to discover the mouth of the Mississippi River. However, he failed to establish a permanent settlement there, so he left a letter to a group of Native Americans from the Mongoulacha tribe and told them to keep it until the French returned. Eventually, the dream of establishing a colony on the Mississippi River Valley would be fulfilled in Fort Maurepas. Fort Maurepas was the first European settlement in what would become the Southeastern United States, and was crucial to determining the fate of the region for centuries to come. After La Salle’s expedition down the Mississippi River, the French saw a vital need to find a colony near the mouth

His most urgent issue at the colony was an economic base to make it profitable (Akin 22). Fort Maurepas was never able to be self-sustaining because only several of the colonists cared for agriculture, and the sandy soil made farming near impossible (Rowland 1). Only the Biloxi Indians were able to keep the French colony from total collapse (Bunn and Williams 2). It was for these reasons, along with a need to be closer to their ally, Spain’s colony of Pensacola, for the imminent war with England, that Bienville was ordered by the French government to move the colony to Mobile (Akin 22). Bienville’s adventures were far from over, and he would be a key figure in the region of Louisiana for many years (Rowland 1). Even though Fort Maurepas was a failure, its importance and impact of the region cannot be denied. The colony proved that there was much to be gained from a settlement on the Gulf Coast, and was a key in the French gaining a foothold in Louisiana. Without the French, Washington would have never became a soldier, the United States would not have its first leader, and America would not have Creole cuisine or Mardi Gras! This is what made Fort Maurepas so