New Orleans would become part of the French colony claimed in 1682 by a French explorer, Rene Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, who named the colony “Louisiana” after King Louis XIV and his Austrian bride Queen Anne. The city was officially established in 1718 by the French-Canadian explorer, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, which he named after the ruling regent of France at that time, Philippe, the Duke of Orléans. The site of the city was strategic, placing it roughly 100 miles north from the mouth of the Mississippi River and on a location of high ground where it could be used as a port to, and from, the rest of the colony. In 1721 New Orleans became the official capital of the French colony due to the success it saw compared to the rest of Louisiana, from the Appalachian Mountains going west all the way to the Rockies and as far north as the Canadian border.

In the beginning, it took a while before the city really began to prosper. In the early 1700′s, the population was helped greatly by the arrival of Catholic clerics from the Jesuit order and an influx of 2,000 German immigrants. Although not a favorable part of New Orleans history, slaves were also introduced into the city around this time, nearly doubling the population. In 1727, Ursuline Nuns built the Ursuline Convent which included a chapel, school and a local hospital which they also administered.

The original convent that was built is the oldest convent building still standing in the US today and the only building to survive from the French Colonial era. Also built the same year was one of the city’s most famous landmarks, the St. Louis Cathedral, located at what is now known as Jackson Square in the French Quarter.