Louisiana Purchase
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The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S acquired about 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million dollars. The Louisiana Purchase was an incredible deal for the United States. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the beginning of the Rocky Mountains. Official boundaries were not determined, except that the eastern border ran from the Mississippi River north to the 31 degrees north. Present states included in the Louisiana Purchase are: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. As the Mississippi River became the chief trading channel for goods shipped among the states it bordered, the American government became greatly interested in purchasing New Orleans, an important port city and mouth of the river. Beginning in 1801, and with little luck at first, Thomas Jefferson sent envoys to France to negotiate the small purchase they had in mind. France controlled the vast stretches of land west of the Mississippi, known as Louisiana, from 1699 to 1762. That was the year it gave the land to its Spanish ally. The French general Napoleon Bonaparte took back the land in 1800 and had every intention of asserting his presence to the region. Unfortunately, there were reasons why selling the land was all but necessary such as:
A prominent French commander recently lost a fierce battle in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) that took up much needed resources and cut off the connection to the ports of North America’s southern coast
- French officials in the United States reported to Napoleon on the country's quickly increasing population. This highlighted the difficulty France might have in holding back the western frontier of American pioneers.
- France did not have a strong enough navy to maintain control of lands so far away from home, separated by the Atlantic ocean.
- Napoleon wanted to consolidate his resources so that he could focus on conquering England. Believing he lacked the troops and materials to wage an effective war, the French general wished to sell France's land to raise funds.
Negotiations
France was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 1802 Spanish authorities acted under French orders revoked a U.S Spanish treaty that granted Americans the right to store goods in New Orleans. In response, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to aid Livingston in the New Orleans purchase talks. In mid April of 1803, shortly before Monroe's arrival, the French asked a surprise Livingston if the United States was interested in purchasing all of Louisiana territory. Negotiations moved quickly, at the end of April, the U.S envoys agreed to pay $11,250,000 and assume claims of domain of Louisiana Territory, some 828,000 square miles of land. The treaty was dated April 30 and signed on May 2nd. In October, the U.S Senate ratified the purchase and in December of 1803, France transferred authority over the region to the United States.
Louisiana Purchase: Aftermath
The obtainment of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of less than three cents an acre was among Jefferson's most noble achievements as presidents. American expansion westward into the new lands began immediately. In 1804, a territorial government was established. On April 30, 1812, nine years after the Louisiana Purchase agreement was made, the first state to be carved from the territory - Louisiana was admitted into the union as the 18th U.S state.
The Louisiana Purchase changed America because it doubled the land of U.S. It opened trade routes to Mexico and pushed our border from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi Basin. Although it caused conflicts, it opened West for further expansion.