At the end of the French and Indian Wars in 1763, France lost all of its possessions in North America.This empire was centered on the Caribbean island of Santo Domingo and its lucrative cash crop of sugar. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave the Kingdom of Great Britain rights to all land in the valley east of the Mississippi and Spain rights to land west of the Mississippi. Spain also ceded Florida to England to regain Cuba, which the English occupied during the war. Britain then divided the territory into East Florida and West Florida.
The French territory called Louisiana, extending from New Orleans up the Missouri River to modern-day Montana, was intended as a granary for this empire and produced flour, salt, lumber, and food for the sugar islands. By the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Fontainbleau, however, Louisiana west of the Mississippi was ceded to Spain, while the victorious British received the eastern portion of the huge colony. When the United States won its independence from Great Britain in 1783, one of its major concerns was having a European power on its western boundary, and the need for unrestricted access to the Mississippi River.
For many families in predominantly Anglophone communities, French language attrition has occurred, particularly in younger generations.
The Acadians who settled in LOUISIANA after 1764, known as Cajuns, have had a dominant cultural influence in many parishes, particularly in the southwestern area of the state known as Acadiana.
The state of LOUISIANA 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. The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands, and the alluvial and coast and swamp regions.
LOUISIANA has a humid subtropical climate. A large part of LOUISIANA is the creation and product of the Mississippi River. The French colony of LOUISIANA originally claimed all the land on both sides of the Mississippi River and north to French territory in Canada. Throughout the LOUISIANA Territory, the underlying strata of the state are of Cretaceous age and are covered by alluvial deposits of Tertiary and post-Tertiary origin created by the Mississippi River. Near the coast, there are many salt domes, where salt is mined and oil is often found.
Prince Edward Island, along with most rural regions in North America, is experiencing an accelerated rate of youth outmigration. The provincial government has projected that public school enrolment by the 2010s will decline by 40%.
