The Louisiana Purchase 1803
Included land from the Mississippi River to Rocky Mountains
Background Information
In the beginning of the 17th century, France started settling in the Mississippi Valley. France had more established settlements than any other country in the United States. After the French and Indian War, France gave the majority of the territory to Great Britain. The United States as under the control of Jefferson and France was under the control of Napoleon. The Louisiana Purchase is an agreement between France and United States for France to sell the United States their the land. The United States paid $15 million dollars for the 828,000 acres of land. The land cost three cents per acre. The United States needed control of the Mississippi river for importing and exporting goods out of New Orleans.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson strongly believed in the Constitution. He thought the powers of the president are restricted to what the Constitution says. Jefferson approved the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, but it did go against his constitutional believes. The deal of the land was too good of a deal for such land; Jefferson could not pass it up. He then launched an expedition to explore the untraveled land. This expedition became knows as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon was a feared military leader. He conquered a good portion of the European continent. During the beginning of his reign as leader a slave revolt broke out in the Caribbean. Napoleon sent a large amount of his troops there to settle the revolt. Once the slaves had beaten his army, he wanted nothing to do with the land in America. It was too difficult to control the two territories with the Atlantic being a big obstacle. Napoleon then sold his land west of the Mississippi to the United States, to help pay for his loses and rid the land from his responsibility.
Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston was a New York political leader that was chosen by Thomas Jefferson to be the ambassador to France. Since he was the ambassador to France, he talked with France. Livingston's intention were to buy just the port of New Orleans. Livingston ended up buying the entire Louisiana Territory because of the fairly low price.
Why?
The United States wished to gain territory to better themselves economically. The advantages to gaining this land would be having the Mississippi river, port of New Orleans, and reach Manifest Destiny. The French agreed to selling the land to the United States because France needed money for the cost of the war.
The Treaty
The Treaty of 1818 put the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the 49th parallel and provided for a ten-year joint occupation of the Oregon Territory with Britain, without a surrender of rights and claims by neither Britain nor America.
Facts
The territory gained is now fifteen states.
The territory belonged to Spain before it did to France.
The majority of the land was unexplored wilderness.
This purchase was the largest amount of land bought at once by United States, nearly doubling the country's size.
Napoleon's brother tried to talking him out of selling the land.
Works Cited
"Louisiana Purchase." History.com. A+E Networks, 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2015. <http://www.history.com/ topics/louisiana-purchase>.
"Louisiana Purchase." Monticello. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2015. <https://www.monticello.org/site/ <jefferson/louisiana-purchase>.
"Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark." Shmoop. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2015. <http://www.shmoop.com/louisiana-purchase-lewis-clark/robert-livingston.html>.