Special History Study: The Defense of New Orleans, 1718-1900
Greene JA. 1982. Special History Study: The Defense of New Orleans, 1718-1900. National Park Service. Denver, Colorado
For almost two hundred years, from the founding of New Orleans in 1718 to the beginning of the twentieth century, the security of that settlement and city remained of paramount importance to the successive powers that governed it. Situated in the wet lowlands of southern Louisiana along a sharp bend of the Mississippi River some ninety miles from its mouth, New Orleans was ideally located for fulfilling its destiny as a major agricultural, commercial, and cosmopolitan center. Yet the very geography contributing to its rise throughout the years of French, Spanish, and United States suzerainty also determined the urgency for protecting the city, and in consequence, the whole southern frontier, against the military advances of covetous foreign rivals. Thus , for much of the city's existence, New Orleans' mercantile success has closely coincided with the evolution of a strong defensive system designed, with varying emphases over time, to protect that prosperity, to insure its perpetuation, and, in a national sense, to prevent enemy access into the interior of the continent.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Greene, Jerome
- Date of Issue
- 1982-02
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- HIST , JELA
- Keywords
- Cultural Resources, Delta, ehistory, forts, French Colonial, History, Illustrations, New Orleans, Spanish Colonial