New Orleans: a Timeline of Economic History by Richard Campanella, Tulane University
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NEW ORLEANS // HISTORY NEW ORLEANS: A TIMELINE OF ECONOMIC HISTORY BY RICHARD CAMPANELLA, TULANE UNIVERSITY rench colonials founded New Orleans mercantilist node after the Louisiana in 1718 as a headquarters for a com- Purchase in 1803, as Americans moved F mercial land-development scheme westward and needed a downriver tran- for their 1682 claim of the Louisiana shipment port to which they could export territory, and as a bulwark against English 1718 their agricultural surpluses, and from NEW ORLEANS and Spanish expansion into the lower FOUNDED which new steamboats could return with Mississippi Valley. The city floundered in by French Colonials imports. Vast sugar and cotton plantations the colonial era but developed into a major near New Orleans, with their insatiable 6 neworleansnewopportunities demand for enslaved labor, made New fields along the lower Mississippi to petro- Orleans the premier slave-trading city in leum processing and chemical industries, the United States, as well as the legal, “ abetted by ocean-going shipping and the financial, and commodities-handling growth of Louisiana’s onshore, nearshore, capital of the South. Throughout the and later off-shore oil-and-gas extraction antebellum era, the port ranked second industry. With manufacturing in decline only to New York in traffic, while the after the war, New Orleans rebounded city’s population doubled roughly every with oil-and-gas related employment. fifteen years, making New Orleans the Technological changes in the shipping largest city in the South and at one industry, meanwhile, replaced thousands point the third-largest in the nation. of dockworkers with containerization But the concurrent development of technology, to which the city responded by manmade waters like the Erie Canal developing its service sector for the leisure (1825), plus a network of railroads and business tourism industry. The city (1830s-1850s) linking the trans-Appala- that came onto the world stage as a river/ chian West directly with the Northeast, The city ocean shipping port specializing in agricul- increasingly gave shippers alternatives tural commodities entered the twenty-first to the Mississippi River route to market. floundered in century resting primarily on the tourism- While New Orleans’ western commerce the colonial era dominated service sector, port industries, increased in absolute numbers, its relative and the oil and gas sector. share diminished. Coupled with the Civil but developed The deluge triggered by Hurricane War and the ensuing economic, social, Katrina in 2005 brought great tragedy and and racial upheaval, New Orleans found into a major great change. The postdiluvian city bustled its trajectory of metropolitan ascendency with recovery investments and witnessed reversed by the late 1800s. mercantilist an influx of young, educated creative The city reinvented itself at the turn node after the“ people who have introduced entrepreneur- of the twentieth century by modernizing ial energy to the city, adding to the local its port, investing in municipal improve- Louisiana cultural renaissance. Employment rates ments in drainage, water distribution, have remained consistently well below the transportation, and electrification, and Purchase in national average since 2008, and hous- encouraging the development of a manu- ing values have seen none of the flux of facturing sector. Institutions of higher 1803. markets like California and Florida. The education formed and developed national city’s media and entertainment sector, par- reputations, particularly in the area of ticularly the film industry, has gone from medical research. River traffic revived dur- negligible to national-class in less than a ing World War I, as the nation upgraded decade, earning the region the moniker its inland waterways system and barge “Hollywood South.” With an improved fleet and the Mississippi River enjoyed a public education system and a new hur- rebirth of domestic traffic. New Orleans ricane risk-reduction system complete as of especially boomed during World War II, June 2012, New Orleans finds itself well- when major ship-building and armaments positioned for an economic resurgence. industries brought tens of thousands of The following timeline supplements rural workers into the city and the port the above summary with additional details became the point of embarkation for hun- on the economic history and geography dreds of thousands of troops. The 1940s of New Orleans, from prehistoric times to also saw the conversion of the sugar cane the present. 7 NEW ORLEANS // HISTORY PREHISTORY 1793-1795 Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and Etienne Boré’s Prehistoric Indigenous granulation of Louisiana sugar peoples occupy Mississippi help launch Southern planta- delta and discover key tion economy. Both commodi- shortcuts between Gulf of ties enrich New Orleans while Mexico and Mississippi River; entrenching slavery in region. future New Orleans site, lying on one such portage, becomes 1800s trading site and encampment. 1800 Spain secretly retrocedes Louisiana to militarily power- 1600s ful France. 1682 La Salle claims 1803 Slave revolt in Saint- Mississippi Valley and deltaic Domingue, impending war, plain for France; names it and need for money inspires Louisiana in honor of his king. Napoleon to sells entire Louisiana colony to U.S.; New 1699 France colonizes Louisiana for military, impe- Orleans, now in progressive American hands, is foreseen rial, and economic reasons. to become one of richest and most important cities in na- 1700s tion, hemisphere, and world. Canal and Carondelet Streets circa 1860. 1712-1717 French crown cedes 1809 Over 9000 Saint- struggling Louisiana colony Domingue (Haitian) refugees as commercial monopoly arrive to New Orleans via city for lighting and other command of Mississippi Valley to Antoine Crozat and later Cuba. purposes. trade. John Law, who establishes 1812 Louisiana admitted to 1835 New Orleans and 1851 A peak of 52,011 Company of the West, launch- Union as eighteenth state. es international campaign to Carrollton Rail Road installed immigrants arrive to New lure settlers, and resolves to 1812 First Mississippi River on present-day St. Charles Orleans, making city primary establish New Orleans. steamboat arrives; with Avenue, precipitating uptown immigration port in South and hinterland under intensive development. second only to New York for 1718 Bienville establishes New cultivation, new transporta- most years between 1837 and 1836-1838 Municipal Orleans at the present-day tion technology positions New 1860. French Quarter. It becomes Orleans to become principal market system begins steady “Cotton District” forms Louisiana capital and company Southern city. expansion. 1850s around Gravier/Carondelet headquarters in 1722. 1840 New Orleans, by one 1825 Erie Canal connects Great intersection; becomes New measure, ranks as fourth 1719 First large group of Lakes with Hudson River; Orleans’ Wall Street. Africans arrives to New gives New York City access to busiest commercial port in Orleans, commencing four- West, suddenly challenging Western world, exceeded only 1861-1865 Louisiana secedes teen decades of slavery. New Orleans’ monopoly on by London, Liverpool, and from Union. War ends early Mississippi Valley trade. New York. for New Orleans as federal 1762-1769 French and Indian troops occupy city in May Destrehan Canal dug to War costs France most of its 1825-1830 Louisville and 1840s 1862. Region’s slave-based connect Mississippi River with New World colonies; dominion Portland Canal circumvents plantation economy collapses of New Orleans passes to waterfalls on Ohio River; ben- Bayou Barataria and Barataria forever; era of human enslave- Spain. efits New Orleans by providing Bay. ment ends after 143 years. uninterrupted shipping to Market is founded along 1850 New telegraph lines South and Southern agricul- 1791 Pittsburgh. lower-city riverfront; “French speed city’s communication ture is devastated; shipping Market” becomes keystone of 1830s Pontchartrain Railroad links with adjacent cities and commerce to New Orleans extensive municipal food-re- and New Basin Canal give city points downriver. interrupted; federal presence and post-war racial tensions tailing system and birthplace access to lake trade. 1850s New railroads in alter social landscape. of American tropical-fruit 1834 First successful gas Northeast introduce new industry; today serves as node company brings new fuel to competition on New Orleans’ 1860s-1870s Ice manufactur- in tourist economy. ing and refrigerated shipping 8 neworleansnewopportunities abets food industries; wealthy demographic to area. 1905-1910 New home canals, revetments, and other expands list of commodities Loyola University follows in construction commences in devices. transhipped at New Orleans. 1910 recently platted Lakeview sub- 1937-1943 Housing Authority division, drained from marsh 1860s-1870s Railroads con- 1890s-1900s Purification and of New Orleans clears selected only a few years earlier. nect city with Biloxi, Mobile, distribution plant is construct- historic neighborhoods to Pensacola, and points east. ed in Carrollton, bringing city 1910s-1940s Gentilly is construct subsidized housing developed on and near Gentilly projects. 1875-1879 With sedimenta- into modern age of municipal Ridge topographic feature in tion delaying shipping traffic water systems. 1940 Moisant Airfield is Seventh and Eighth wards. at mouth of Mississippi, 1890s-1900s Steel-frame con- established in Kenner to sup- Capt. James Eads