Louisiana (New France)

Louisiana () or French Louisiana was an administrative district of New France. It was under French control 1682 to 1762 and 1801 (nominally) to 1803 when France sold it in the Louisiana Purchase. The area was named after King Louis XIV by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. The area included most of the drainage basin of the Mississippi River, and it went from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, and it went from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rocky Mountains.
Louisiana included two regions. These regions are now known as Upper Louisiana (), which began north of the Arkansas River, and "Lower Louisiana" (). Most of the French people in Upper Louisiana came from Canada.
The U.S. state of Louisiana is named for the historical region. Although it is only a small part of the vast lands claimed by France.