Greg Glassman, age 11, of Baton Rouge, La., for his question:
WHO NAMED LOUISIANA?
Louisiana is the state that is shaped like a boot. In 1682, a French explorer named Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, traveled down the great Mississippi River and claimed the entire river valley for France. La Salle named the area Louisiana in honor of his king, Louis XIV.
Located on the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana has the state of Mississippi to the east, Arkansas to the north and Texas to the west. The Mississippi River's delta makes up that part of Louisiana that looks like the boot's toe.
Spanish explorers discovered the Mississippi River, with an adventurer named Hernando De Soto receiving credit for being the first in 1541. But Spain lost interest in the region when no precious metals were found and it was more than 100 years later before La Salle came into the picture.
French colonization of Louisiana started in 1699 when two brothers, Pierre La Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville and Jean Baptists La Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, established a first settlement on the gulf near the present day site of Biloxi, Miss.
Bisnville started another settlement in 1718 at New Orleans.
In 1731, Louisiana became a crown colony under Francs but then, in 1762, France secretly gave New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain.
Louisiana went back to France in 1800 in another secret treaty.
Later, President Thomas Jefferson wanted to buy New Orleans so that the United States would always have a port city on the Gulf of Mexico. France was willing to sell not only New Orleans but also all of the Louisiana Territory.
On April 30, 1812, Louisiana was admitted to the union as the 18th state. In the same year, the first steamboat on the Mississippi River, a craft named "New Orleans," sailed from Pittsburgh, Pa., down to New Orleans.
On Jan. 8, 1815, at the end of the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson led the Americans to a victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans.
Gen. Zachary Taylor of Louisiana led 1,500 men into Texas when the Mexican War started in 1846. Two years later, Taylor was elected President of the United States.
Louisiana was one of the first states to secede from the union when the Civil War started. It did so on Jan. 16, 1861. Louisiana also was one of the first states that formed the Confederate States of America.
During the Civil War, New Orleans was captured by federal forces on May 1 , 1862.
Louisiana was readmitted to the Union in 1868.
The capital of Louisiana is Baton Rouge. In Spanish, this means "Red Stick." The state's largest city is Now Orleans, which is located 110 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Louisiana is one of the leading trade centers in the United States.