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Louisiana is a Southern state of the United States. The
capital is Baton Rouge and the largest city is New Orleans. The state is
bordered to the west by the state of Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the
east by the state of Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.
Louisiana is home to many distinct cultures; especially notable are the
Louisiana Creole people and the French-speaking Cajun.
Louisiana has a humid subtropical climate, perhaps the most
"classic" example of a humid subtropical climate of all the Southeastern states,
with hot summers and mild winters. The subtropical characteristics of the state
are due in large part to the influence of the Gulf of Mexico, which even at its
farthest point is no more than a couple hundred miles away. Louisiana is often
affected by tropical cyclones and is very vulnerable to strikes by major
hurricanes, especially the low area around and in the New Orleans area. The area
is also prone to frequent thunderstorms, especially in the summer. The entire
state averages over 60 days of thunderstorms a year averaging more thunderstorms
than any other state except Florida. Louisiana averages 27 tornadoes annually,
and the entire state is vulnerable to a tornado strike, with the extreme
southern portion of the state slightly less vulnerable than the rest of the
state.
Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, one of France's
greatest and most powerful
 kings. After Renι-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River; he named it La
Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis". Most of the territory to the east of the
Mississippi was lost to the Kingdom of Great Britain in the French and Indian
War, except for the area around New Orleans and the parishes around Lake
Pontchartrain. The rest of Louisiana became a colony of Spain after the Seven
Years' War by the Treaty of Paris of 1763.
In 1803, Bonaparte sold the territory to the United States,
which divided it into two territories: the Orleans Territory (which became the
state of Louisiana in 1812) and the District of Louisiana (which consisted of
all the land not included in Orleans Territory). The Florida Parishes were
annexed from the short-lived and strategically important West Florida Republic
by proclamation of President James Madison in 1810.
Louisiana was a slave state. In the American Civil War,
Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. New Orleans was captured
by Federal troops on April 25, 1862. Because a large part of the population had
Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the Federal government
took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana under federal
control as a state within the Union, with its own elected representatives to the
U.S. Congress.
Louisiana is unique among U.S. states in its method for
state, local, and congressional elections. All candidates, regardless of party
affiliation, run in an open
primary on Election Day. If no candidate has more
than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the highest vote total compete in
a runoff election approximately one month later. This runoff does not take into
account party identification; therefore, it is not uncommon for a Democrat to be
in a runoff with a fellow Democrat or a Republican to be in a runoff with a
fellow Republican.
The state's principal agricultural outputs include seafood
(It is the biggest producer of crawfish in the world), cotton, soybeans, cattle,
sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, and rice. Its industrial outputs
include chemical products, petroleum and coal products, food processing,
transportation equipment, paper products, and tourism.
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Fast Facts
Population - 4,523,628
Capital - Baton Rouge
Largest city - New Orleans
Area - 51,885 sq mi (31st)
Highest point - Driskill Mountain 535 ft
Lowest point - New Orleans -8 ft
Admission to Union - April 30, 1812 (18th)
Time zone - Central (UTC-6/-5)
Web site - www.louisiana.gov
Sales tax rate - 4%
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