Louisiana

French and then Spanish before the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana is the most culturally distinct Southern state — Catholic, Creole and Cajun, governed under a civil-law system unlike any other. New Orleans was the antebellum South's largest city and slave market and a great port at the mouth of the Mississippi. Sugar, cotton, and later oil and gas have driven its economy.

• Existed: 1699 CE – present
• Type: Entity
• Government: U.S. State
• Capital: Baton Rouge