Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville,…

Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, joins the French naval campaigns against the English in the North Atlantic and Hudson Bay in 1695.

At the age of eighteen, Bienville joins his elder brother Pierre Le Moyne d’ Iberville on an expedition to establish the colony of Louisiana.

Bienville and Iberville during this expedition explore the north-central Gulf of Mexico coastline, discovering the Chandeleur Islands off the coast of Louisiana as well as Cat Island and Ship Island off the coast of what is now the state of Mississippi before moving westward to sail up the mouth of the Mississippi River all the way to what is now Baton Rouge and False River.

Before heading back to France, Iberville establishes the first settlement of the Louisiana colony, Fort Maurepas in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and appoints Sauvolle de la Villantry as the governor and Bienville as Lieutenant and second in command.

Bienville takes another expedition up the Mississippi River following Iberville's departure, and has an encounter with English ships at what is now known as English Turn.

Iberville, upon hearing of this encounter on his return, orders Bienville to establish a settlement along the Mississippi River at the first solid ground he can find.

Bienville establishes Fort de la Boulaye in 1700, fifty miles upriver,.

Bienville ascends to the governorship of the new territory after Sauvolel's death in 1701 for the first of four terms.