Fort Maurepas

The settlement of Fort Maurepas or Old Biloxi, in colonial French Louisiana (New France), began in April 1699 along the Gulf of Mexico (at present-day Ocean Springs, MS). Fort Maurepas was the capital of Louisiana (New France) in 1719, when the capital was being moved from Mobile (in present-day Alabama), while government buildings at New Orleans were still under construction.

The fort had been completed on May 1, 1699 under direction of French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who soon sailed for France on May 4. He appointed his teenage brother Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville as second in command after the French commandant Sauvolle de la Villantry (c.1671–1701).

The name Biloxi in French was "Bilocci" (and the camp also known in French as "fort Maurepas" to honor Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas); but the name of the site was sometimes translated into English as "Fort Bilocci" on maps updated circa the years 1710/1725.

French Louisiana (part of New France) was known in French as La Louisiane in colonial times, but in modern times is called "La Louisiane française" to distinguish from the modern state of Louisiana (also "Louisiane" in French).