Contemporary Louisiana culture has been largely formed by its long history and influences from the peoples that settled there. First the Indians were there, then the French, and finally all peoples from almost everywhere came and settled in the state. As a result it became one of the most -if not the most-heterogeneous state in the United States, the exact definition of the US Great Seal’s inscription e pluribus unum.
Louisiana was ‘discovered’ and explored by Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne de Bienville, a French-Canadian, who claimed the territory in behalf of France on the basis of ‘right of discovery’. To cement the claim, the settlement of New Orleans was founded around 1718, peopled mostly by pioneering Frenchmen. The whole claim was bought by the United States in 1803, when Napoleon Bonaparte needed financing for his European wars, for $15 million, considered a folly at the time.
The Louisiana Purchase encompassed the area from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from below the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. However, Louisiana was a much-reduced territory when it was admitted to the Union in 1812, due largely to the settlement of the upper areas that also subsequently became states.
The French Quarter
The points of interest in Louisiana’s French Quarter center on its historical buildings, many still in their original state. They show the period’s architectural concepts and construction styles, including the use of space and materials. Likewise, they played important roles in the state’s history, both through the personages that resided there and as venues of important events. Touring the French Quarter is getting back in history and feeling the tempo of the olden times.
Go to the Garden District, and join the walking tours visiting the most important places in the vicinity, to learn its history the best way. The Garden District is considered National Historic District, which means it is of national importance as a place of historical events.
There are also tours of plantation mansions like the Magnolia Plantation House, the Melrose Plantation and the Oak Alley Plantation with its ages-old oak trees festooned with Spanish moss.
Louisiana is all that jazz
The New Orleans Jazz Festival every spring showcases the times’ best jazz productions, much-awaited by jazz aficionados, along with the Jazz Fest and the Heritage Festival. Being the birthplace of the music genre, New Orleans has produced many notable and famous jazz musicians, and the jazz fests are the events to attend and have a preview of what can be in that music field.
The museums of Louisiana
Traces of Louisiana’s culture can be viewed in its several museums. The New Orleans Art Museum contains American and French art pieces, but also includes the works of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Joan Miro and Edgar Degas. The Ogden Museum, on the other hand, is dedicated to showing particular areas in Louisiana’s history like the African-American period and that of Mardi Gras festival.
Lastly, the Café du Monde is the best place to taste Louisiana’s distinct cuisine, largely influenced by French and Cajun style of dishes. Really, Louisiana’s history is in its soul.
