You've probably heard the legend of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. He's the guy usually credited with "founding" New Orleans in 1718. But honestly, if you ask a local or a historian who specializes in the Gulf South, the answer to when was New Orleans settled gets a lot more complicated than a single date on a bronze plaque. History isn't a straight line. It's more like the Mississippi River itself—constantly shifting, breaking its banks, and leaving behind layers of silt that blur the edges of what we think we know.
New Orleans wasn't just "born" in 1718.
People had been living on that high ground—what we now call the French Quarter—for thousands of years before a French ship ever spotted the reeds of the delta. The indigenous people, specifically the Chitimacha and later the Houma and Choctaw, used this specific crescent of land as a portage point. They called it Bulbancha, which basically translates to "the place of many languages." It was a trading hub long before the French arrived with their powdered wigs and feverish dreams of empire.
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So, when we talk about the settlement of New Orleans, we’re really talking about two different timelines: the deep history of the land and the formal European colonial project that turned a swampy bend in the river into a global port.
The 1718 Myth and the French Reality
Bienville finally planted the flag in the spring of 1718. He chose the spot because it was the highest ground available and offered a shortcut to the Gulf via Lake Pontchartrain. But calling it a "settlement" in 1718 is a bit of a stretch. It was a swamp. Literally.
Imagine a handful of exhausted Frenchmen, many of them forced onto ships from prisons or poorhouses in Paris, standing in knee-deep mud surrounded by mosquitoes the size of small birds. There were no cobblestone streets. There were no balconies. There was just a grid of dirt paths and a few palmetto-leaf huts.
The early years were a disaster.
The Mississippi River flooded almost immediately. Hurricanes ripped through the "city" in 1722, leveling most of the early structures. If it weren't for the knowledge of the enslaved Africans and the local indigenous tribes, the French would have probably packed up and gone home within a decade.
Why 1722 actually matters more
While 1718 is the official birthday, 1722 is when the city actually started looking like a city. That’s when the capital of French Louisiana was moved from Mobile to New Orleans. It’s also when Adrien de Pauger, the royal engineer, laid out the 11-by-7 block grid that we still walk today in the Vieux Carré.
If you're looking for the moment New Orleans became a permanent fixture on the map, 1722 is arguably the more honest answer.
The People Who Actually Built the Place
When was New Orleans settled? If you mean "built," then the answer belongs to the enslaved population. By 1719, the first ships carrying enslaved people from the Senegambia region of West Africa arrived. This changed everything. These weren't just laborers; they were experts in rice cultivation, indigo, and engineering in tropical environments.
The French had no idea how to survive in a delta.
The West Africans did. They brought the technology and the agricultural knowledge that allowed the colony to move from a starving outpost to a functioning economy. This is why New Orleans feels different from any other American city. It wasn't a British colony that slowly adopted slavery; it was a city that was culturally and physically constructed by African and French influences simultaneously from its very inception.
The Spanish Era: A Second Settlement
Most tourists walk through the French Quarter and think they’re looking at French architecture. They aren't.
In 1762, King Louis XV lost a gamble and handed Louisiana over to his cousin, King Charles III of Spain. The French settlers were furious. They actually revolted in 1768, kicking out the first Spanish governor. But the Spanish came back with a fleet and stayed for nearly 40 years.
During this time, two massive fires—one in 1788 and another in 1794—virtually wiped out the original French wooden buildings. The Spanish rebuilt the city with bricks, fire walls, and those iconic courtyards. When you ask when New Orleans was "settled" in terms of its physical appearance, the answer is mostly the late 1700s under Spanish rule.
- The 1788 Fire: Destroyed over 800 buildings.
- The 1794 Fire: Burned down the remaining French structures.
- The Result: The St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo we see today are Spanish-era products.
The American Takeover and the 1803 Shift
Then comes the Louisiana Purchase. 1803.
Suddenly, this weird, Catholic, French-and-Spanish-speaking port was part of the United States. The Americans didn't really like the Creoles (the people born in the colony), and the Creoles definitely didn't like the Americans. The newcomers settled across Canal Street in what is now the Central Business District and the Garden District.
This created a "second" settlement of the city. For much of the 19th century, New Orleans was a city divided. Canal Street wasn't just a road; it was a neutral ground between two completely different cultures. If you want to know when New Orleans was settled as an American city, it didn't really happen until the mid-1800s boom when it became the fourth-largest city in the U.S. and a massive hub for the cotton (and slave) trade.
Key Facts About the Early Settlement
- The Portage: The site was chosen because Native Americans showed the French a trail from the river to the lake (now Bayou St. John).
- The Name: Named after Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was the Regent of France at the time.
- The Population: Early settlers included "casket girls" (young women sent to marry colonists), German farmers who saved the city from starvation, and thousands of enslaved people.
- The Elevation: The French Quarter sits on a natural levee about 12 feet above sea level. Most of the rest of the city was settled much later as technology allowed for the draining of the swamps.
Misconceptions About the Settlement
A lot of people think New Orleans was settled by French aristocrats.
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Wrong.
The French government basically cleared out their prisons to populate the place. Smugglers, thieves, and "undesirables" were given a choice: stay in a French dungeon or try your luck in the Louisiana mud. It was a rough, gritty, and dangerous place. This "outlaw" DNA is still part of the city's soul today. It was never meant to be a polite society.
Another big mistake is thinking the city was always below sea level. In 1718, the parts they settled were above the water. It’s only because the city expanded into the cypress swamps during the 20th century—using massive pumps designed by A. Baldwin Wood—that New Orleans became the "bowl" we talk about today.
How to Explore the Original Settlement Today
If you’re visiting to see where it all began, don't just stay on Bourbon Street.
- Visit the Old Ursuline Convent: This is the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley, completed in 1752. It’s the only surviving example of pure French colonial architecture in the city.
- Walk Bayou St. John: This is where the indigenous portage began. It feels much more like the "original" landscape than the paved-over Quarter.
- The Historic New Orleans Collection: Go to their museum on Royal Street. They have the original maps from the 1720s that show just how tiny and precarious the settlement was.
- Congo Square: Located in Louis Armstrong Park, this was the gathering place for enslaved people on Sundays. It is the spiritual heart of the city's settlement.
Understanding when New Orleans was settled requires looking past the 1718 date. It was settled in waves—by the indigenous peoples of the delta, by French prisoners and African engineers, by Spanish administrators, and eventually by American speculators. Each group left a footprint that hasn't been washed away, even by the biggest storms.
To truly see the city, you have to look for the layers. Look at the street names that change at Canal Street. Look at the Spanish arches on French-named streets. Look at the high ground. The settlement of New Orleans isn't a historical event; it's an ongoing process of a city trying to stay above water while holding onto its wildly complicated past.
For those planning a trip or researching the history deeper, start your journey at the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint. It sits right on the edge of the original 1718 grid and provides the best context for how the city's unique demographics formed through its early years of settlement. You can also look into the "Pointe-du-Mardi Gras" site, where Iberville and Bienville first camped in 1699, located about 60 miles downriver from the city. It’s the true precursor to the 1718 settlement.