History, Government, Demographics

History:  New Orleans is a cosmopolitan city with a rich cultural diversity.  The name, New Orleans, comes from French explorers Iberville and Bienville who named the city Nouvelle Orleans, after the Duke of Orleans.  New Orleans, nicknamed "The Crescent City," is located on the coastal plain of the United States that incorporates the Mississippi Delta in the southeast corner of the state of Louisiana. Marshes, bayous, and lakes surround it. One of the largest inland salt-water lakes, called Lake Pontchartrain, borders New Orleans to the north. It boasts a 24-mile span bridge, the Causeway, which links New Orleans to the popular north shore communities of Mandeville, Covington, and Madisonville.

The history of New Orleans begins with its founding by the French in 1718, ceding of the colony to the Spanish Empire in a secret provision of the 1763 Treaty of Fontainebleau, then returned to the French in the secret 1800 Treaty of San Ildefonso, and finally sold by the French to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase  in 1803.

For more information on the history of New Orleans, please see the Wikipedia entry on New Orleans, or visit the website of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Government:  The State of Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes in the same way that 48 of the other states of the United States are divided into counties for administrative purposes. In colonial Louisiana, which was officially Roman Catholic under both France and Spain, civil government was centered on the ecclesiastical governing unit.  After the Louisiana Purchase, Territorial Governor William C. C. Claiborne and his Legislative Council in 1805 divided Orleans Territory into twelve counties. Their boundaries were somewhat indefinite, but they generally coincided with the old church parishes, and kept the same names.

In 1807, the territorial legislature passed an act dividing the territory into nineteen parishes - but without abolishing the earlier twelve counties. For several years following this, both terms were used pretty much interchangeably. When a constitutional convention met in 1811 to prepare for Louisiana's admission as a state, they organized the state into seven judicial districts - as groups of parishes. The first official map of the state, in 1816, continued the use of the term, as did the revised Constitution of 1845. Louisiana's primary civil divisions have been officially known as parishes ever since. 

The Greater New Orleans Area includes the following parishes:, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, and Washington.

For information on the city of New Orleans, please visit www.cityofno.com/.  The city's home page has been developed to help citizens interact with their government in a convenient and meaningful way.  The site provides information about the Mayor, the city council, local government, city departments, police department, and city phone directory.

Demographics:  For demographic information on the city of New Orleans, please visit this website.