text: **Non-European relations and the colonies**
  
  French colonies multiplied in Africa, the Americas, and Asia during Louis's reign, and 
  French explorers made important discoveries in North America. In 1673, Louis Jolliet and 
  Jacques Marquette discovered the Mississippi River. In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur 
  de La Salle, followed the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and claimed the vast 
  Mississippi basin in Louis's name, calling it*Louisiane*. French trading posts were also 
  established in India, at Chandernagore and Pondicherry, and in the Indian Ocean at Île 
  Bourbon. Throughout these regions, Louis and Colbert embarked on an extensive program 
  of architecture and urbanism meant to reflect the styles of Versailles and Paris and the 
  'gloire' of the realm.[52] 
  
  The Persian embassy to Louis XIV 
  sent by Soltan Hoseyn in 1715. 
  *Ambassade de Perse auprès de*
  *Louis XIV*, studio of Antoine Coypel. 
  
  Meanwhile, diplomatic relations were initiated with distant countries. In 1669, Suleiman 
  Aga led an Ottoman embassy to revive the old Franco-Ottoman alliance.[53] Then, in 1682, 
  after the reception of the Moroccan embassy of Mohammed Tenim in France, Moulay Ismail, Sultan of Morocco, allowed French 
  consular and commercial establishments in his country.[54] In 1699, Louis once again received a Moroccan ambassador, Abdallah 
  bin Aisha, and in 1715, he received a Persian embassy led by Mohammad Reza Beg. 