History pt. 1

No other state has a more varied or colorful past than Louisiana. The state has been 

governed under 10 different flags beginning in 1541 with Hernando de Soto's claim of the 

region for Spain. La Salle later claimed it for Bourbon France and over the years Louisiana 

was at one time or another subject to the Union Jack of Great Britain, the Tricolor of 

Napoleon, the Lone Star flag of the Republic of West Florida and the fifteen stars and 

stripes of the United States. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Louisiana became an 

independent republic for six weeks before joining the Confederacy.