ABSTRACT
Despite its strategic situation, New Orleans was something of a colonial afterthought to its French administrators from the 1720s to 1760s and its Spanish governors for the remainder of the century. The small beleaguered city, with a population of a few thousand, fell further in priority when revolution and insurgency rocked the Atlantic world in the late 1700s. Violence to the north ousted British colonials and launched a new American nation; violence across the ocean overthrew the French monarchy and spawned a shaky new republic; violence in the Caribbean fueled a slave insurrection in France's most valued colony, Saint-Domingue. As political tumult transpired internationally, agricultural breakthroughs began to affect the lower Louisiana landscape. Colonials lowered the French tricolor for the last time in the Place d'Armes during the Louisiana Purchase ceremony on December 20, 1803. In only a few years, New Orleans's fortunes had dramatically reversed.
