Citizenship was not guaranteed to the people of Louisiana.
Since the Colonial era, the people of the Louisiana territory had
experienced forced allegiance to rulers and governments.

In some periods citizenship was granted by Spain, and in other periods it was granted by
France; however all things French came to dominate the culture of the territory.
With the influx of the "foreign French" and those French speaking people of the Caribbean,
joined with the Creoles, there formed a strong and vibrant Latino culture. Changes
in citizenship were therefore not unknown by the inhabitants; yet it was
this new nation, the United States, that came to most permanently affect the character
of the region.

The Americans, as they were called for most of the 19th century, were
of an Anglo Saxon Protestant mind. They were more aggressive, less "laissez-faire"
and eagerly demanded their share of the newly acquired territory. At the time, New Orleans
was the largest city in the region. Its port at the mouth of the Mississippi river was of great
importance. Acquired in 1803 in a formal exchange of territory, the United States placed the
former French territory on the path to Statehood, which it acquired in 1811. Until this time
citizenship was not a given and its limits would be severely challenged 50 years later at
the out break of war.