European settlement of what now is Louisiana began about 200 years after the Spanish first visited the area. After failing with a settlement at Biloxi along the Mississippi River, the French established the first permanent settlement in 1714 at Natchitoches. Its early history is a tragic one. John Law was granted a monopoly on commerce in 1717. His Mississippi Scheme was designed to entice investment in what he proclaimed was a land of fabulous mineral wealth. The scheme fell apart three years later. German peasants settled on land upstream from New Orleans in the 1820s. Louisiana became a French crown colony in 1731. In 1762 Louisiana was ceded to Spain as a result of the French and Indian War. At about the same time, Acadians, driven from Canada by the British, began migrating to Louisiana. Spain returned Louisiana to France in 1800, and three years later the United States purchased the land. In 1812, Louisiana became the 18th state of the Union on April 30, 1812.