Through the Louisiana Purchase, the United States' territory doubled at once. sold Louisiana Territory to the United States Marcus Whitman missionary family in Oregon Pennsylvania had a Whiskey Rebellion tariff tax on imported goods Cabinet President's team of workers Dolley Madison saved White House treasures Zebulon Pike explored the Louisiana Territory olive branch symbol of peace Francis Scott Key Critics in Congress worried whether these "foreigners", unacquainted with democracy, could or should become citizens. The Significance of the Zimmermann Telegram. National Geographic also adds that it paved the way for the imperial expansion and conquest of the Native American tribes of the West. The U.S. adapted the former Spanish facility at Fort Bellefontaine as a fur trading post near St. Louis in 1804 for business with the Sauk and Fox. The Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. While this was just a rumor, he had made up his mind to sell the territory. This respite gave Napoleon breathing room in his failed attempt to recover Saint-Domingue. Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801[9] with the authorization to purchase New Orleans. The great expansion of the United States achieved by the Louisiana Purchase did receive criticism, though . 2), which is just what Jefferson did. Upon word of the Louisiana territory transfer from Spain to France, some hot-headed members of Congress proposed a preemptive strike against New Orleans. [63], The Louisiana Purchase was negotiated between France and the United States, without consulting the various Indian tribes who lived on the land and who had not ceded the land to any colonial power. all of the above Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. The Louisiana Purchase extended United States sovereignty across the Mississippi River, nearly doubling the nominal size of the country. All four started from the Mississippi River. Napoleon. President Thomas Jefferson had acquired purchased the Louisiana Territory almost a year earlier, for the price of about $15 million (about $342 million in 2020, adjusted for inflation).The ceremony took place in St. Louis, Missouri, earning the U.S. city its nickname "Gateway to . dollar. Advertisement lollol The Louisiana Territory was sold to the United States by France on December 20th, 1803, for the bargin of less than three cents per acre. How was the Louisiana Territory acquired? The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 530,000,000 acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France in 1803 for $15 million. Jefferson, as a strict constructionist, was right to be concerned about staying within the bounds of the Constitution, but felt the power of these arguments and was willing to "acquiesce with satisfaction" if the Congress approved the treaty. [61], During the War of 1812, Great Britain hoped to annex all or at least portions of the Louisiana Purchase should they successfully defeat the U.S. Aided by their Indian allies, the British defeated U.S. forces in the Upper Mississippi; the U.S. abandoned Forts Osage and Madison, as well as several other U.S. forts built during the war, including Fort Johnson and Fort Shelby. U.S. ownership of the whole Louisiana Purchase region was confirmed in the Treaty of Ghent (ratified in February 1815) and guaranteed on the battlefield at the decisive Battle of New Orleans when the British sent over 10,000 of the best British Army soldiers to try to take New Orleans in a 5 month long campaign starting from September 1814 (First Battle of Fort Bowyer) to February 1815 (Second Battle of Fort Bowyer). Your email address will not be published. On April 30, 1812, exactly nine years after the Louisiana Purchase agreement was made, the first of 13 states to be carved from the territoryLouisianawas admitted into the Union as the 18th . Without the profits from Saint-Domingue, it did not make sense to try to defend the sprawling Louisiana Territory, and Napoleon was worried about the British. 730 Words3 Pages. In a letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote that France's repossession of the territory "is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the Atlantic and involve in it's effects their highest destinies.". The Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. The scene caused a servant to faint, and when Lucien lingered to try to argue the point, Napoleon said to his brother that if he opposed him he would break him like a snuffbox which he smashed into the floor. When Joseph continued to object, Napoleon shouted, "You are insolent!" It was the French who sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction. Contents1 What country controlled the Louisiana Territory?2 Who controlled the Louisiana Territory in 1763?3 Who controlled Louisiana in 1812?4 Who controlled Louisiana in 1810?5 [] In January 1802, France sent General Charles Leclerc on an expedition to Saint-Domingue to reassert French control over a colony that had become essentially autonomous under Louverture. There was also concern that an increase in the number of slave-holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between North and South. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the "preemptive" right to obtain "Indian" lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.[1][2]. National Geographicpoints out that in modern dollars, the Louisiana Purchase would have cost $342 million. Who sold the Louisiana Territory to the Jefferson? C. would have a hard time managing the land and needed the money for war in Europe. Spain Originally governed New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory up until 1802, but then transferred ownership to France under a secret treaty. Furthermore, the Spanish prime minister had authorized the U.S. to negotiate with the French government "the acquisition of territories which may suit their interests." The territory made up all or part of fifteen modern U.S. states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The island colony of Saint Domingue was the most profitable of all French colonies given its vast sugar plantations. B. felt that the United States would be the best country to manage the land. Britain and France renewed hostilities on May 18, 1803, shortly after the deal was finalized. 53, no. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. [22] In 1804 Haiti declared its independence; but fearing a slave revolt at home, Jefferson and the rest of Congress refused to recognize the new republic, the second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade embargo against it. The French government replied that these objections were baseless since the promise not to alienate Louisiana was not in the treaty of San Ildefonso itself and therefore had no legal force, and the Spanish government had ordered Louisiana to be transferred in October 1802 despite knowing for months that Britain had not recognized the King of Etruria in the Treaty of Amiens. Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves. With the failure to retake Saint-Domingue and the inevitability of renewed war between France and Britain, Napoleon refigured his political calculus. Mexico. Livingston wrote to James Madison, "We shall do all we can to cheapen the purchase, but my present sentiment is that we shall buy.". Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barb-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15million,[13] which averages to less than three cents per acre (7/ha). [24], Henry Adams and other historians have argued that Jefferson acted hypocritically with the Louisiana Purchase, because of his position as a strict constructionist regarding the Constitution since he stretched the intent of that document to justify his purchase. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. 1, 1967, pp. While 3-4 cents an acre was not a massive deal, from Napoleons perspective he received a large sum of money for land he had just received and had virtually no control over. Louisiana under Spanish control fared little better. Many Southern slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory might inspire American-held slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. Napoleon's brothers, Lucien and Joseph, objected, thinking it a black mark on France's reputation and glory. The Similarities And Differences Between The Lewis And Clark Expedition. A group of Northern Federalists led by Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts went so far as to explore the idea of a separate northern confederacy. Also, many Federalists were speculators in lands in upstate New York and New England and were hoping to sell these lands to farmers, who might go west instead, if the Louisiana Purchase went through. Aside from the obvious drive for conquest by Napoleon, he knew that when war started between the two countries, Britain would attempt to take Louisiana. The formidable British navy could easily blockade the territory and seize it for themselves. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25723883. Napoleon brought stabilization to the regime, though direct taxes on the population made up a sky-high ~60% of all government revenues, compared to just 30% pre-revolution.2, In addition, Napoleons government maintained a large standing army to protect the nation and ward off enemies. The resources and land from theLouisiana territory considerably helped the United States become the global power it is today. As detailed by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Americans believed that the acquisition and settlement of new lands to the west were critical to the future development of the country. The purchase doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to . Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. This was possible because the Louisiana territory did not only encompass Louisiana as the state that exists today. However, in 1800 Spain had ceded the Louisiana territory back to France as part of Napoleon's secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000sqmi (2,140,000km2; 530,000,000 acres) in Middle America. [T]his little event, of France possessing herself of Louisiana, . Which one of the following men was not a member of Washington's first Cabinet? President Jefferson's Secretary of the Treasury. The territory's boundaries had not been defined in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau that ceded it from France to Spain, nor in the 1801 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceding it back to France, nor the 1803 Louisiana Purchase agreement ceding it to the United States.[49]. True False, Federalists believed in a strict following of the Constitution exactly as it was worded. The Louisiana territory would go on to play a central role in the westward expansion of the United States throughout the 19th century. What is the eagle on the Great Seal holding in his right talon? The following year, the District of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Louisiana. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. Besides, we may hereafter expect rivalries among the members of the Union. Louisiana Purchase, western half of the Mississippi River basin purchased in 1803 from France by the United States; at less than three cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km), it was the greatest land bargain in U.S. history. Why did Napoleon Sell the Louisiana Territory? Even in 1803, that was dirt cheap. Ambitions ruined, the French forces admitted defeat and returned home. In need of funds, Napoleon pressed the banks to complete their purchase of the bonds as quickly as possible, and by April 1804 the banks transferred an additional 40.35 million francs to fully discharge their obligations to France. To Napoleon's line of thinking, if the United States took control of Louisiana, then it would deny Britain the opportunity of conquering it. [4] New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Desperate to avoid possible war with France, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris in 1803 to negotiate a settlement, with instructions to go to London to negotiate an alliance if the talks in Paris failed. France The Louisiana Purchase was a land purchase made by United States president, Thomas Jefferson, in 1803. That leads to the question as to why on Earth would France sell so much land, or at least the rights to it 828,000 acres for what amounted to 4 cents an acre? Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle, and the Perdido is the western boundary of Florida. He stood up and then splashed back down into the water so heavily that his brothers got soaked. The final price after the 15-year bonds were paid was $27 million, still a very good deal for the United States, and not really a bad one for Napoleon, considering the pressure he was under to dump the territory. Difficulty in Maintaining Louisiana Territory, timeline of the history of the United States, Understanding the Significance of the 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality, The Significance of the 1775 Olive Branch Petition, The Significance of the Corrupt Bargain Election of 1824, The Significance of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. [32] The Senate quickly ratified the treaty, and the House, with equal readiness, authorized the required funding, as the Constitution specifies. Pakenham was ordered to conduct the New Orleans/Mobile campaign even in the middle of the peace negotiations in late 1814. True False. History and Geography 807: The Industrial Nat, Social Studies American History: Reconstruction to the Present Guided Reading Workbook, Deborah Gray White, Edward L. Ayers, Jess F. de la Teja, Robert D. Schulzinger, Alan Brinkley, Albert S. Broussard, Donald A. Ritchie, James M. McPherson, Joyce Appleby, Creating America: A History of the United States. In this light the deal can be seen as a win-win between Napoleon and the United States. All these soldiers needed to be fed, housed, and paid. [28], Henry Adams claimed "The sale of Louisiana to the United States was trebly invalid; if it were French property, Bonaparte could not constitutionally alienate it without the consent of the French Chambers; if it were Spanish property, he could not alienate it at all; if Spain had a right of reclamation, his sale was worthless. Manifest destiny was in full effect. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau. However at the time Napoleon traded long-term potential for short-term gain. The purchase included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, including the entirety of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; large portions of North Dakota and South Dakota; the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; the portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; the northeastern section of New Mexico; northern portions of Texas; New Orleans and the portions of the present state of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River; and small portions of land within Alberta and Saskatchewan. While the dreams of colonial domination evaporated, Napoleon turned his attention towards establishing an empire across the European continent instead. Why is France sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US? Lucien later reported in a memoirthat the pair sought out their brother in the Tuileries, where they found the ruler indulging in a bath. In order to lessen the strain of direct taxes on the populace, the French government simply needed more money from other sources. The French loss of Saint-Domingue sent a shudder through the world. The key to opening the western goal was securing the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Territory. It was the first and only time that a slave revolt had seen such success, and this epochal event in San-Domingue is linked with the Louisiana Purchase. I renounce Louisiana. In 1799, he had seized power in a coup d'tat in France and wanted to restore French glory in the Americas. The Constitution specifically grants the president the power to negotiate treaties (Art. The Louisiana Purchase proved popular with white Americans, who were hungry for more western lands to settle. Slaves were routinely terrorized in a race-based social order. On April 12, 1803, Franois Barb-Marbois met with the Americans. [citation needed], In Saint-Domingue, Leclerc's forces took Louverture prisoner, but their expedition soon faltered in the face of fierce resistance and disease. Napoleon reported told his Minister of Finance Barbe-Marbois in reference to the Louisiana territory: Second, selling the Louisiana territory to the United States could strengthen the nation and thus provide a counterweight against their British foes. Without that, the United States' international influence would be less, as would its influence over the development of democracies. This, together with the successful French demand for an indemnity of 150 million francs in 1825, severely hampered Haiti's ability to repair its economy after decades of war. It remained in Spanish hands until 1800, when Napoleon Bonaparte negotiated a secret treaty with Spain and took the vast holding back in exchange for tiny Etruria in Northern Italy. With a $15 million investment, the United States acquired more than 800,000 acres, almost doubling the country's land holdings. How did Jefferson acquire Louisiana Territory? Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. [58] The institutionalization of slavery under U.S. law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Its European peoples, of ethnic French, Spanish and Mexican descent, were largely Catholic; in addition, there was a large population of enslaved Africans made up of a high proportion of recent arrivals, as Spain had continued the transatlantic slave trade. [42] In the final agreement, the value of the U.S. currency was set at .mw-parser-output .sfrac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .sfrac.tion,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .tion{display:inline-block;vertical-align:-0.5em;font-size:85%;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .num,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{display:block;line-height:1em;margin:0 0.1em}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{border-top:1px solid}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}5+3333/10000 francs per U.S. The first westward surge of the settlement reached the: What did the South receive in the compromise over the war debts between Hamilton and Jefferson? The Haitian Revolution began in 1791 and lasted for over a decade. [1][2] More recently, the total cost to the U.S. government of all subsequent treaties and financial settlements over the land has been estimated to be around 2.6 billion dollars.[1][2]. [62] The U.S. later built or expanded forts along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, including adding to Fort Bellefontaine, and constructing Fort Armstrong (1816) and Fort Edwards (1816) in Illinois, Fort Crawford (1816) in Wisconsin, Fort Snelling (1819) in Minnesota, and Fort Atkinson (1819) in Nebraska. As explained by Medium, in 1803, even before final Haitian independence, it had dawned on Napoleon that his prospects for developing an American empire were growing increasingly faint. Napoleon saw in the sale of Louisiana something he needed more than anything else cold, hard cash. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1833473. Knowing that war was imminent, Napoleon sensed two opportunities by selling the Louisiana territory. Pinckney's Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, gave American merchants "right of deposit" in New Orleans, granting them use of the port to store goods for export. [6] The territory nominally remained under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the formal cession of the territory to the United States on December 20, 1803.[7]. a Federalist judge who wanted his commission granted. The four decades following the Louisiana Purchase was an era of court decisions removing many tribes from their lands east of the Mississippi for resettlement in the new territory, culminating in the Trail of Tears. Brown University explains that Saint-Domingue created a tax revenue base of 1 billion livres and exported up to 170 million livres into France on an annual basis. [40], To pay for the land, the American government used a mix of sovereign bonds and the assumption of French debts. The answer fell into his lap. The jewel of the French overseas empire was Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean, which is today's Haiti on the large island of Hispaniola. The many court cases and tribal suits in the 1930s for historical damages flowing from the Louisiana Purchase led to the Indian Claims Commission Act (ICCA) in 1946. Saint-Domingue was a powder keg, ready to explode. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.. Who claimed the Louisiana Territory for France? Timeline of the History of the United States. [citation needed], Governing the Louisiana Territory was more difficult than acquiring it. Livingston and Monroe were only authorized to spend up to $10 million for the purchase of New Orleans and West Florida. When Napoleon rose to power he recommitted to recapture the colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) and sent tens of thousands of troops in 1802 to crush the rebellion. By the 1720s, several settlements had developed, the chief of which was the territory's capital at New Orleans. [3] The western borders of the purchase were later settled by the 1819 AdamsOns Treaty with Spain, while the northern borders of the purchase were adjusted by the Treaty of 1818 with Britain. In the year of 1803, the Louisiana purchase occurred. Monroe, along with the minister to France, Robert Livingston, made the inquiry. [23], After Monroe and Livingston had returned from France with news of the purchase, an official announcement of the purchase was made on July 4, 1803. [12], Although the foreign minister Talleyrand opposed the plan, on April 10, 1803, Napoleon told the Treasury Minister Franois Barb-Marbois that he was considering selling the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. According to the University of Kentucky, slaves outnumbered free people at least 10 to 1. The British would have likely garrisoned New Orleans and would have occupied it for a very long time because they and their ally Spain did not recognize any treaties and land deals conducted by Napoleon since 1800, especially the Louisiana Purchase. However, as Slate Magazine describes, the United States did not so much buy the land but rather the imperial rights to conquer it and take it from the Native Americans who'd lived there for millennia. The question of what to do with the territory brought out deep divisions along sectional lines and ultimately helped lead to the Civil War. The French Revolution and the Politics of Government Finance, 1770-1815. The Journal of Economic History, vol. Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned over the purchase's constitutionality. A U.S. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution. This was particularly true in the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, which also contained a large number of free people of color. In the end, Barings and Hopes acquired the $11.25 million in bonds for just $9.44 million. [37][38], Effective October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Territory of Orleans (most of which would become the state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under control of the governor and judicial system of the Indiana Territory. Everybody who has taken grade-school history knows the story. However, the territory north of the 49th parallel (including the Milk River and Poplar River watersheds) was ceded to the UK in exchange for parts of the Red River Basin south of 49th parallel in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818. With war in Europe likely, the French did not have the resources to defend and maintain the Louisiana territory. [42] In October 1803, the U.S. Treasury had some $5.86 million in specie on hand, $2 million of which would be used to pay a portion of the debts assumed from France as part of the purchase. [8] In 1801, Jefferson supported France in its plan to take back Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), which was then under control of Toussaint Louverture after a slave rebellion. On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence. Napoleon dreamed and yearned for a French colonial empire to rival the British. 9, no. First, as mentioned before, France needed more money for the impending war and to concentrate its resources on Europe. 22755. While the transfer of the territory by Spain back to France in 1800 went largely unnoticed, fear of an eventual French invasion spread across America when, in 1801, Napoleon sent a military force to secure New Orleans. This made it difficult, when compared to Britain, to obtain the necessary money to wage large-scale wars. His strategy was to use Louisiana to supply the flour, salted meat, timber, and other resources necessary to support his troops on the island colony. Another concern was whether it was proper to grant citizenship to the French, Spanish, and free black people living in New Orleans, as the treaty would dictate. [24], The opposition of New England Federalists to the Louisiana Purchase was primarily economic self-interest, not any legitimate concern over constitutionality or whether France indeed owned Louisiana or was required to sell it back to Spain should it desire to dispose of the territory.
