Alternate Louisiana?

[phx1138]

I've read the northern & southern parts are so different, they might as well be different stats. So, WI they were? What would it take to achieve? Could the eastern & western borders be different? (The OTL ones leave me thinking they wouldn't make viable states.)

Does this inevitably lead to conflict with Spain (or Mexico) at encroaching their borders?

 

[Don Corleone]

The 33rd parallel was an arbitrary line after the Louisiana Purchase so it's now the present day border between Louisiana and Arkansas. They could just as easily made the 32nd parallel or the Red River the northern boundary, although they wouldn't have known back then that there would be significant regional differences.

North Louisiana is standard Deep South - piney hill country, cotton and soybeans, Baptist. South Louisiana is unique - flat land with a lot of swamps and marshes, rice and sugar as the main crops, Catholic. South Louisiana has about 70% of the state's population.

Spain claimed that the western boundary of Louisiana was a dry gulch a few miles west of Nachitoches, while the US claimed the Sabine River. That dispute was eventually settled in favor of the US. In the interim, the disputed zone was treated by both sides as no man's land and became a haven for outlaws.

 

[Mark E.]

North Louisiana is standard Deep South - piney hill country, cotton and soybeans, Baptist. South Louisiana is unique - flat land with a lot of swamps and marshes, rice and sugar as the main crops, Catholic. South Louisiana has about 70% of the state's population.

That’s the population break today because of the expansion after WW2 with petroleum-based industry and air conditioning. Before that time, the state was more dominated by the Old Southern north, offset by the large port city of New Orleans.

 

[SwampTiger]

No,No,No. Until Huey Long, Louisiana was dominated by the New Orleans region. Huey's brand of Progressivism wrenched power from the New Orleans elites through combining the northern crackers with the southern Cajuns, swampers, and farmers from the prairie parishes. Petrochemicals are a boom and bust industry except for cancer alley between Baton Rouge and English Bend. The majority of the population resided in the south, primarily from the Atchafalaya eastward until WW2. The growth of military bases and improved roads, from the Long era, allowed the population access to the rest of the nation. The steady decline of New Orleans allowed the rest of the state to catch up.

 

[Mark E.]

The steady decline of New Orleans allowed the rest of the state to catch up.

But the growth of Jefferson Parish offset the decline of New Orleans. The growth of Cancer Alley (BR to NO) only packed the growth in the south. Yes, Huey and the rest of the north-staters, did much to connect the rest of the state, the part that did not rely on the rivers.