French explorers and traders established many settlements along the Mississippi River in the 1500s and 1600s as they searched for a northwest passage to Asia. These settlements included parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. New Orleans became an important port city and the center of French culture in North America in the 1800s, introducing creole languages that blended French and African influences. The French also introduced grand opera and other cultural influences that helped spread the French language throughout the region.