Bienville, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de (1680-1768)

French-Canadian colonial administrator, governor of the North American colony of Louisiana 1706-13, 1717-23, and 1733-43. During his first term he founded the settlement at Mobile (colonial capital 1710-19) in Alabama, and in his second term established the Louisiana colonial capital at New Orleans. During his final term Bienville was drawn into a costly and ultimately unsuccessful war with the American Indians of the lower Mississippi Valley.

Born in Ville-Marie (now Montréal), Québec, Canada, Bienville served in the French navy and in 1698 accompanied Pierre d' Iberville on a mission to establish a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River.