The Florida Parishes (, ), on the east side of the Mississippi River—an area also known as the Northshore or Northlake region—are eight parishes in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The Florida Parishes were part of what was known as West Florida in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Unlike most of the state, this region was not part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, which applied to territory west of the Mississippi River. First settled by the French, it was ceded to Great Britain in 1763 after France's defeat in the Seven Years' War. The British exchanged it with Spain following the American Revolutionary War for territory outside North America. This area was acquired by the US in 1812 and combined with the new state of Louisiana. History In terms of historical European influence, the area that became the Florida Parishes was first claimed by French colonists as part of Louisiane or French Louisiana. The French settled New Orleans, Mobile (now within Alabama); and founded numerous other settlements. Following the French defeat in the French and Indian War, as the North American front of the Seven Years' War was known, that country was forced to cede this region —like most of the rest of French Louisiana east of the Mississippi River (excluding New Orleans)—to victorious Great Britain. This region became part of the British colonial province of West Florida. Following the American Revolutionary War, Britain ceded West and East Florida to Spain, and the territory became the subject of a border dispute with the newly formed United States. American and British settlers in the part of West Florida west of the Pearl River declared an independent Republic of West Florida in 1810 and elected their leader, Fulwar Skipwith, as president. None of this short-lived Republic of West Florida lay within the boundaries of the modern U.S. state of Florida. The flag of the Republic of West Florida, which was later identified with the Confederates' Bonnie Blue Flag of the Civil War era, continues to be flown on many public buildings in the Florida Parishes. In 2006, the state legislature designated it the "official flag of the Republic of West Florida Historic Region." The republic was quickly annexed by the United States, and the present-day Florida Parishes were incorporated into the Territory of Orleans, which joined the Union as the U.S. state of Louisiana in 1812. In