<Li> The City that Care Forgot has been used since at least 1938, and refers to the outwardly easy - going, carefree nature of many of the residents . </Li> <P> La Nouvelle - Orléans (New Orleans) was founded May 7, 1718, by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean - Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha . It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time . His title came from the French city of Orléans . </P> <P> The French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris (1763). During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River . Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez successfully launched a southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779 . New Orleans (Spanish: Nueva Orleans) remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted briefly to French oversight . Nearly all of the surviving 18th - century architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from the Spanish period, the most notable exception being the Old Ursuline Convent . </P> <P> Napoleon sold Louisiana (New France) to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 . Thereafter, the city grew rapidly with influxes of Americans, French, Creoles, and Africans . Later immigrants were Irish, Germans, and Italians . Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on large plantations outside the city . </P>

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