(baptized July 20, 1661, Ville-Marie de Montréal
died July 9, 1706, Havana, Cuba, Spanish empire) French Canadian naval hero and explorer.
As a young man he led raids on English fur-trading posts on Hudson Bay. He commanded expeditions against British settlements that by 1697 had expanded the area controlled by New France . He then ventured south to fortify the Mississippi River delta and secure the claim made on Louisiana by La Salle . The settlement Iberville founded on Biloxi Bay (1699) and the forts he built below present-day New Orleans (1700) and on the Mobile River (1702) led to the later colonization of Louisiana.