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It is an industrial and distribution center, a major seaport, and known for its rich cultural heritage, especially its music and cuisine. The city is on the banks of the Mississippi River about 100 miles upriver from the Gulf of Mexico at 30.07°N, 89.93°W.
As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 484,674. This figure does not include the suburbs in neighboring Jefferson Parish, Saint Bernard and other nearby communities; the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of about one million.
In addition to the urban areas of the city, New Orleans includes undeveloped wetland, especially in the east. Some communities within the Orleans Parish have historically had separate identities from the city New Orleans, such as Irish Bayou . Algiers, Louisiana was a separate city through 1870Events January 6 The inauguration of the Musikverein ( Vienna). January 10 John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil January 15 A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking. As soon as Algiers became a part of New Orleans, the Orleans Parish ceased being separate from the city of New Orleans.
New Orleans has a subtropicalSubtropical (or semitropical areas are those adjacent to the tropics, usually roughly defined as the ranges 23. 5-40° N and 23. 5-40° S latitude. These areas typically have hot tropical summers, but non-tropical winters. In certain areas of the world the climate with mild winters and hot, humid summers; it snows about twice a century. New Orleans is especially vulnerable to hurricanes from June to November.
New Orleans was founded by the FrenchThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. (as Nouvelle-Orléans) under the direction of Jean Baptiste Lemoyne , Sieur de Bienville, in 1718Events May 15 James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun. July 21 Treaty of Passarowitz signed November 22 Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as " Blackbeard") is killed in battle when a British bo. The site was selected as a rare bit of naturally higher ground along the flood-prone banks of the lower Mississippi, as well as being adjacent to a Native AmericanNative Americans (also Indians Aboriginal Peoples American Indians First Nations Alaskan Natives or Indigenous Peoples of America are the indigenous inhabitants of Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. This term compri trading route and portagePortage is the name of some places in the North America: Portage, Indiana Portage, Michigan Portage, Ohio Portage, Pennsylvania Portage Township, Michigan Portage Township, Pennsylvania Portage La Prairie, Manitoba (frequently referred to as "Portage") Th between the Mississippi and Lake PontchartrainLake Pontchartrain is a large lake in southeastern Louisiana. Lake Pontchartrain is roughly oval in shape, about 40 miles wide from east to west, and measures about 25 miles from north to south. The south shore of Lake Pontchartrain forms the northern bou via the Bayou St. John (formerly known to the natives as Bayou Choupique). A community of French fur trappers and traders had existed along the bayou (in what is now Mid-City New Orleans) for at least a decade before the official founding of the city. Nouvelle Orleans became the capital of French Louisiana in 1722, replacing Biloxi in that role.
In 1763 the colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire as a secret provision of the Treaty of Fontainebleau , but no Spanish governor came to take control until 1766. Some of the early French settlers were never quite happy with Spanish rule, and repeatedly petitioned to be returned to French control. A fire destroyed 856 buildings in the city on March 21, 1788, and another destroyed 212 buildings in December of 1794; after this brick replaced wood as the main building material.
The population of New Orleans also suffered from epidemics of yellow fever, malaria, and smallpox, which would periodically return throughout the 19th century until the successful supression of the city's final outbreak of yellow fever in 1905. In 1795 Spain granted the United States "Right of Deposit" in New Orleans, allowing Americans to use the city's port facilities. Louisiana reverted to French control in 1801 after Napoleon's conquest of Spain, but in 1803 Napoleon sold Louisiana (which at the time also included the territory which are now several other states) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. At this time the city of New Orleans had a population of about 10,000 people.