The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane "Sale of Louisiana") was the

acquisition of the Louisianaterritory (828,000 square miles or 2.14 million km) by

the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million francs ($11,250,000
USD) and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs ($3,750,000 USD) for a
total of sixty-eight million francs ($15,000,000 USD, or around $250m in 2016 dollars).
The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian
provinces. The territory contained land that
forms Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; the portion
of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; a large portion of North Dakota; a large
portion of South Dakota; the northeastern section of New Mexico; the northern portion
of Texas; the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental
Divide; Louisiana west of the Mississippi River (plus New Orleans); and small portions
of land within the present Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Its non-
native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were African slaves. [1]
The Kingdom of France controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it
was ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800, French Emperor Napoleon, hoping to re-establish
an empire in North America, regained ownership of Louisiana. However, France's failure
to put down the revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare
with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States. The
Americans originally sought to purchase only the port city of New Orleans and its
adjacent coastal lands, but quickly accepted the bargain. The Louisiana Purchase
occurred during the term of the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
Before the purchase was finalized, the decision faced Federalist Party opposition; they
argued that it was unconstitutional to acquire any territory. Jefferson agreed that
the U.S. Constitution did not contain explicit provisions for acquiring territory, but he
asserted that his constitutional power to negotiate treaties was sufficient.

Throughout the second half of the 18th century, Louisiana was a pawn on the
chessboard of European politics.[2] It was controlled by the French, who had a few small
settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. Following French defeat in
the Seven Years' War, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi and
the British the territory to the east of the river.[3]
Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area
east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The main issue for the Americans was
free transit of the Mississippi to the sea. As the lands were being gradually settled by a
few American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the
territory would be acquired "piece by piece." The risk of another power taking it from a
weakened Spain made a "profound reconsideration" of this policy necessary.[2] New
Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the areas of
the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. 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. Americans used this
right to transport products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider,
butter, and cheese. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire
Mississippi, which had become vital to the growing trade of the western territories. [3]
In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly
upsetting Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took
over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo, and restored the American right to deposit
goods. However, in 1800 Spain had ceded the Louisiana territory back to France as part
of Napoleon's secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso.[4] The territory nominally remained
under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on 30 November 1803, just
three weeks before the formal cession of the territory to the United States on 20
December 1803.[5] A further ceremony was held in St. Louis a few months later partially
due to winter conditions impeding the arrival of news, Upper Louisiana, regarding
the New Orleans formalities. The 910 March 1804 event is remembered as Three
Flags Day.
James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston had traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase
of New Orleans in January 1803. Their instructions were to negotiate or purchase
control of New Orleans and its environs; they did not anticipate the much larger
acquisition which would follow.[6]
The Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest territorial gain in U.S. history. Stretching
from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, the purchase doubled the size of
the United States. Before 1803, Louisiana had been under Spanish control for forty
years. Although Spain aided the rebels in the American Revolutionary War, the Spanish
didn't want the Americans to settle in their territory.[7]
Although the purchase was thought of by some as unjust and unconstitutional, Jefferson
determined that his constitutional power to negotiate treaties allowed the purchase of
what became fifteen states. In hindsight, the Louisiana Purchase could be considered
one of his greatest contributions to the United States.[8] On April 18, 1802, Jefferson
penned a letter to United States Ambassador to France Robert Livingston. It was an
intentional exhortation to make this supposedly mild diplomat strongly warn the French
of their perilous course. The letter began:
The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France works most sorely on the
U.S. On this subject the Secretary of State has written to you fully. Yet I cannot forbear
recurring to it personally, so deep is the impression it makes in my mind. It completely
reverses all the political relations of the U.S. and will form a new epoch in our political
course. Of all nations of any consideration France is the one which hitherto has offered
the fewest points on which we could have any conflict of right, and the most points of a
communion of interests. From these causes we have ever looked to her as our natural
friend, as one with which we never could have an occasion of difference. Her growth
therefore we viewed as our own, her misfortunes ours. There is on the globe one single
spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans,
through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market, and
from its fertility it will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain
more than half our inhabitants. France placing herself in that door assumes to us the
attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her pacific
dispositions, her feeble state, would induce her to increase our facilities there, so that
her possession of the place would be hardly felt by us, and it would not perhaps be very
long before some circumstance might arise which might make the cession of it to us the
price of something of more worth to her. Not so can it ever be in the hands of France.
The impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed in
a point of eternal friction with us...
Jefferson's letter went on with the same heat to a much quoted passage about "the day
that France takes possession of New Orleans." Not only did he say that day would be a
low point in France's history, for it would seal America's marriage with the British fleet
and nation, but he added, astonishingly, that it would start a massive shipbuilding
program.[9]

Negotiation
While the transfer of the territory by Spain back to France in 1800 went largely
unnoticed, fear of an eventual French invasion spread nationwide when, in 1801,
Napoleon sent a military force to secure New Orleans. Southerners feared that
Napoleon would free all the slaves in Louisiana, which could trigger slave uprisings
elsewhere.[10] Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against
Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. Undercutting them, Jefferson took up
the banner and threatened an alliance with the United Kingdom, although relations were
uneasy in that direction.[10] 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.
Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801[11] after discovering the transfer of Louisiana
from Spain to France under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. Livingston was
authorized to purchase New Orleans.
In January 1802, France sent General Charles Leclerc to Saint-Domingue (present-
day Haiti) to re-establish slavery, which had been abolished by the constitution of the
French Republic of 1795, as well as to reduce the rights of free people of color and take
back control of the island from Toussaint Louverture. Louverture had fended off
invasions of St. Domingue by the Spanish and British empires, but had also begun to
consolidate power for himself on the island. Before the Revolution, France had derived
enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves.
Napoleon wanted its revenues and productivity for France restored. Alarmed over the
French actions and its intention to re-establish an empire in North America, Jefferson
declared neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to
the French, but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France
from regaining a foothold.[12]
In November 1803, France withdrew its 7,000 surviving troops from Saint-
Domingue (more than two-thirds of its troops died there) and gave up its ambitions in
the Western Hemisphere.[13] In 1804 Haiti declared its independence; but, fearing a
slave revolt at home, Jefferson and Congress refused to recognize the new republic, the
second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade embargo against it. This,
together with later claims by France to reconquer Haiti, encouraged by the United
Kingdom, made it more difficult for Haiti to recover after ten years of wars. [14]
In 1803, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman, began to help
negotiate with France at the request of Jefferson. Du Pont was living in the United
States at the time and had close ties to Jefferson as well as the prominent politicians in
France. He engaged in back-channel diplomacy with Napoleon on Jefferson's behalf
during a visit to France and originated the idea of the much larger Louisiana Purchase
as a way to defuse potential conflict between the United States and Napoleon over
North America.[15]
Jefferson disliked the idea of purchasing Louisiana from France, as that could imply that
France had a right to be in Louisiana. Jefferson had concerns that a U.S. president did
not have the constitutional authority to make such a deal. He also thought that to do so
would erode states' rights by increasing federal executive power. On the other hand, he
was aware of the potential threat that France could be in that region and was prepared
to go to war to prevent a strong French presence there.[citation needed]
Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military
activities and intentions in North America. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving
du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. He also gave intentionally
conflicting instructions to the two.[citation needed] 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. Spain
procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France,
which allowed American hostility to build. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France
meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. Monroe had been formally expelled from
France on his last diplomatic mission, and the choice to send him again conveyed a
sense of seriousness.
Napoleon needed peace with the United Kingdom to implement the Treaty of San
Ildefonso and take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy
prey for the UK or even for the United States. But in early 1803, continuing war between
France and the UK seemed unavoidable. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began
preparing to invade the UK.
As Napoleon had failed to re-enslave the emancipated population of Haiti, he
abandoned his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Without sufficient revenues
from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. Spain had not
yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK
was imminent. Out of anger towards Spain and the unique opportunity to sell something
that was useless and not truly his yet, Napoleon decided to sell the entire territory. [16]
Although the foreign minister Talleyrand opposed the plan, on April 10, 1803, Napoleon
told the Treasury Minister Franois de Barb-Marbois that he was considering selling
the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. On April 11, 1803, just days before
Monroe's arrival, Barb-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15 million,
equivalent to about $233 million in 2011 dollars,[17] which averages to less than three
cents per acre.[18][19]
The American representatives were prepared to pay up to $10 million for New Orleans
and its environs, but were dumbfounded when the vastly larger territory was offered for
$15 million. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans.
However, Livingston was certain that the United States would accept the offer. [20]
The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing
the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana
Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803. On July 4, 1803, the treaty reached Washington,
D.C.. The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south
to Rupert's Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky
Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory would double the size of the United States,
at a sum of less than 3 cents per acre.

Domestic opposition and constitutionality

Transfer of Louisiana by Ford P. Kaiser for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904)

Henry Adams and other historians have argued that Jefferson acted hypocritically with
the Louisiana Purchase, due to his position as a strict constructionist regarding the
Constitution since he stretched the intent of that document to justify his purchase. [21] This
argument goes as follows:
The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without
domestic opposition. Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question because of
his strict interpretation of the Constitution. Many people believed that he and others,
including James Madison, were doing something they surely would have argued against
with Alexander Hamilton. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close
relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon, and were concerned that the United
States had paid a large sum of money just to declare war on Spain. [citation needed]
Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned over the purchase's
constitutionality. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the
purchase. Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. The House called for a
vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 5957. The
Federalists even tried to prove the land belonged to Spain, not France, but available
records proved otherwise.[22]
The Federalists also feared that the power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be
threatened by the new citizens in the West, whose political and economic priorities were
bound to conflict with those of the merchants and bankers of New England. 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 as well. 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.
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. Critics in
Congress worried whether these "foreigners", unacquainted with democracy, could or
should become citizens.[23]
Spain protested the transfer on two grounds: First, France had previously promised in a
note not to alienate Louisiana to a third party and second, France had not fulfilled
the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso by having the King of Etruria recognized by all
European powers. 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.[24]
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."[25] The sale of course was
not "worthless"the U.S. actually did take possession. 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." Spain turned the territory over to
France in a ceremony in New Orleans on November 30, a month before France turned
it over to American officials.[26]
Other historians counter the above arguments regarding Jefferson's alleged hypocrisy
as follows:
Countries change their borders in two ways: (1) conquest, or (2) an agreement between
nations, otherwise known as a treaty. The Louisiana Purchase was the latter, a treaty.
The Constitution specifically grants the president the power to negotiate treaties (Art. II,
Sec. 2), which is just what Jefferson did.[27]
Jefferson's Secretary of State, James Madison (the "Father of the Constitution"),
assured Jefferson that the Louisiana Purchase was well within even the strictest
interpretation of the Constitution. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin added that since
the power to negotiate treaties was specifically granted to the president, the only way
extending the country's territory by treaty could not be a presidential power would be if it
were specifically excluded by the Constitution (which it was not). 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.[28]
The Senate quickly ratified the treaty, and the House, with equal alacrity, authorized the
required funding, as the Constitution specifies.[29][30]
The original treaty of the Louisiana Purchase

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. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers
gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports.
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. They also feared that this would lead to Western
states being formed, which would likely be Republican, and dilute the political power of
New England Federalists.[29][31]
When Spain later objected to the United States purchasing Louisiana from France,
Madison responded that America had first approached Spain about purchasing the
property, but had been told by Spain itself that America would have to treat with France
for the territory.[32]

Treaty signing

Issue of 1953, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of signing

The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on 30 April by Robert Livingston, James
Monroe, and Barb Marbois in Paris. Jefferson announced the treaty to the American
people on July 4. After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803,
Livingston made this famous statement, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest
work of our whole lives...From this day the United States take their place among the
powers of the first rank."[33]
The United States Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty with a vote
of twenty-four to seven on October 20. The Senators who voted against the treaty
were: Simeon Olcott and William Plumer of New Hampshire, William Wells and Samuel
White of Delaware, James Hillhouse and Uriah Tracy of Connecticut, and Timothy
Pickering of Massachusetts.
On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take
possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. In legislation
enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government
to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule and authorized the President to
use military forces to maintain order. Plans were also set forth for several missions to
explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark
Expedition.[citation needed]

Formal transfers and initial organization

France turned over New Orleans, the historic colonial capital, on December 20, 1803,
at the Cabildo, with a flag-raising ceremony in the Plaza de Armas, now Jackson
Square. Just three weeks earlier, on November 30, 1803, Spanish officials had formally
conveyed the colonial lands and their administration to France.
On March 9 and 10, 1804, another ceremony, commemorated as Three Flags Day, was
conducted in St. Louis, to transfer ownership of Upper Louisiana from Spain to
the French First Republic, and then from France to the United States. From March 10 to
September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district,
under Commandant Amos Stoddard.
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. The following year, the District of Louisiana was renamed
the Territory of Louisiana, aka Louisiana Territory (18051812).
New Orleans was the administrative capital of the Orleans Territory, and St. Louis was
the capital of the Louisiana Territory.

Boundaries
The Purchase was one of several territorial additions to the U.S.

A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of
Louisiana. 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.[34]
The United States claimed Louisiana included the entire western portion of the
Mississippi River drainage basin to the crest of the Rocky Mountains and land extending
southeast to the Rio Grande and West Florida.[35] Spain insisted that Louisiana
comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New
Orleans and St. Louis.[36] The dispute was ultimately resolved by the AdamsOns
Treaty of 1819, with the United States gaining most of what it had claimed in the west.
The relatively narrow Louisiana of New Spain had been a special province under the
jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Cuba while the vast region to the west was in
1803 still considered part of the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas.
Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. [37]
If the territory included all the tributaries of the Mississippi on its western bank, the
northern reaches of the Purchase extended into the equally ill-defined British
possessionRupert's Land of British North America, now part of Canada. The
Purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. 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.
The eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its
source to the 31st parallel, though the source of the Mississippi was, at the time,
unknown. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear. The U.S. claimed
the land as far as the Perdido River, and Spain claimed that the border of its Florida
Colony remained the Mississippi River. In early 1804, Congress passed the Mobile Act,
which recognized West Florida as part of the United States. The AdamsOns Treaty
with Spain (1819) resolved the issue upon ratification in 1821. 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.
Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the Purchase, President
Jefferson immediately began to organize three missions to explore and map the new
territory. All three started from the Mississippi River. The Lewis and Clark
Expedition (1804) traveled up the Missouri River; the Red River Expedition
(1806)explored the Red River basin; the Pike Expedition (1806) also started up the
Missouri, but turned south to explore the Arkansas River watershed. The maps and
journals of the explorers helped to define the boundaries during the negotiations leading
to the AdamsOns Treaty, which set the western boundary as follows: north up
the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to its intersection with the 32nd parallel, due
north to the Red River, up the Red River to the 100th meridian, north to the Arkansas
River, up the Arkansas River to its headwaters, due north to the 42nd parallel and due
west to its previous boundary.

Plan of Fort Madison, built in 1808 to establish U.S. control over the northern part of the Louisiana
Purchase; drawn 1810

Slavery
See also: History of slavery in Louisiana, History of slavery in Missouri, and Slavery in
the United States
Governing the Louisiana Territory was more difficult than acquiring it. 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 international slave trade. 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. Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri already
had some slaveholders in the early 19th century.
During this period, south Louisiana received an influx of French-speaking
refugee planters, who were permitted to bring their slaves with them, and other refugees
fleeing the large slave revolt in Saint-Domingue, today's Haiti. 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. They wanted the
US government to establish laws allowing slavery in the newly acquired territory so they
could be supported in taking their slaves there to undertake new agricultural
enterprises, as well as to reduce the threat of future slave rebellions.[38]
The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the
territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but incorporating
provisions from the preceding French and Spanish rule (for instance, Spain had
prohibited slavery of Native Americans in 1769, but some slaves of mixed African-
Native American descent were still being held in St. Louis in Upper Louisiana when the
U.S. took over).[39] In a freedom suit that went from Missouri to the US Supreme Court,
slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in 1836.[39] The institutionalization of
slavery under U.S. law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a
half century later.[38] As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each
state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery
extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being
admitted as "slave states."
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution.

Asserting U.S. possession

After the early explorations, the U.S. government sought to establish control of the
region, since trade along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was still dominated by
British and French traders from Canada and allied Indians, especially the Sauk and Fox.
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.[40] In 1808 two military forts
with trading factories were built, Fort Osage along the Missouri River in western
present-day Missouri and Fort Madison along the Upper Mississippi River in eastern
present-day Iowa.[41] With tensions increasing with Great Britain, in 1809 Fort
Bellefontaine was converted to a U.S. military fort, and was used for that purpose until
1826.
During the War of 1812, Great Britain and allied Indians 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. After U.S.
ownership of the region was confirmed in the Treaty of Ghent (1814), the U.S. 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 Prairie du Chien Wisconsin, Fort Snelling (1819) in
Minnesota, and Fort Atkinson (1819) in Nebraska.[41]
Financing
The American government used $3 million in gold as a down payment, and issued
bonds for the balance to pay France for the purchase. Earlier that year, Francis Baring
and Company of London had become the U.S. government's official banking agent in
London. Because of this favored position, the U.S. asked the Baring firm to handle the
transaction. Francis Baring's son Alexander was in Paris at the time and helped in the
negotiations.[42] Another Baring advantage was a close relationship with Hope and
Company of Amsterdam. The two banking houses worked together to facilitate and
underwrite the Purchase.
Because Napoleon wanted to receive his money as quickly as possible, the two firms
received the American bonds and shipped the gold to France. [42] Napoleon used the
money to finance his planned invasion of England, which never took place.[43]

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States purchased

approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France,
thereby doubling the size of the young republic. What was known
as Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the
east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of
Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. Part or all
of 15 states were eventually created from the land deal, which is
considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas
Jeffersons presidency.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE: BACKGROUND

Beginning in the 17th century, France explored
the Mississippi River valley and established scattered settlements
in the region. By the middle of the 18th century, France controlled
more of the present-day United States than any other European
power: from New Orleans northeast to the Great Lakes and
northwest to modern-day Montana. In 1762, during the French and
Indian War(1754-63), France ceded French Louisiana west of the
Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred nearly all of its
remaining North American holdings to Great Britain. Spain, no
longer a dominant European power, did little to develop Louisiana
during the next three decades. In 1796, Spain allied itself with
France, leading Britain to use its powerful navy to cut off Spain from
America.

Did You Know?

President Thomas Jefferson

commissioned the Corps of Discovery
Expedition (1804-06), led by Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark, to explore the
territory acquired in the Louisiana
Purchase, among other objectives.
In 1801, Spain signed a secret treaty with France to return
Louisiana Territory to France. Reports of the retrocession caused
considerable uneasiness in the United States. Since the late 1780s,
Americans had been moving westward into the Ohio River
and Tennessee River valleys, and these settlers were highly
dependent on free access to the Mississippi River and the strategic
port of New Orleans. U.S. officials feared that France, resurgent
under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), would
soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf
of Mexico. In a letter to U.S. minister to France Robert Livingston
(1746-1813), Americas third president, Thomas Jefferson (1743-
1826), stated, The day that France takes possession of New
Orleanswe must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.

Livingston was ordered to negotiate with French minister Charles

Maurice de Talleyrand (1754-1838) for the purchase of New
Orleans
LOUISIANA PURCHASE: U.S.-FRANCE
NEGOTIATIONS
France was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 1802 Spanish
authorities, apparently acting under French orders, revoked a U.S.-
Spanish treaty that granted Americans the right to store goods in
New Orleans. In response, Jefferson sent future U.S.
president James Monroe (1758-1831) to Paris to aid Livingston in
the New Orleans purchase talks. In mid-April 1803, shortly before
Monroes arrival, the French asked a surprised Livingston if the
United States was interested in purchasing all of Louisiana
Territory. It is believed that the failure of France to put down a slave
revolution in Haiti, the impending war with Great Britain and
probable British naval blockade of France, and financial difficulties
may all have prompted Napoleon to offer Louisiana for sale to the
United States.

Negotiations moved swiftly, and at the end of April the U.S. envoys
agreed to pay $11,250,000 and assume claims of American
citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000. In exchange,
the United States acquired the vast domain of Louisiana Territory,
some 828,000 square miles of land. The treaty was dated April 30
and signed on May 2. In October, the U.S. Senate ratified the
purchase, and in December 1803 France transferred authority over
the region to the United States.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE: AFTERMATH

The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of
less than three cents an acre was among Jeffersons most notable
achievements as president. American expansion westward into the
new lands began immediately, and in 1804 a territorial government
was established. On April 30, 1812, exactly nine years after the
 Louisiana Purchase agreement was made, the first state to be
carved from the territoryLouisianawas admitted into the Union as
the 18th U.S. state.

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. The purchase
doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the
country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to
westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers
of the federal Constitution.

Overview of the Louisiana Purchase.

Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc.

The Louisiana Territory Under Spanish And

French Rule
The Louisiana Territory had been the object of Old World interest for
many years before 1803. Explorations and scattered settlements in
the 17th and 18th centuries had given France control over the river
and title to most of the Mississippi valley.

The Louisiana area in the early 18th century, map by Nicolas de Fer, 1718.

The Newberry Library (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

The first serious disruption of French control over Louisiana came

during the Seven Years War. In 1762 France ceded Louisiana west
of the Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred virtually all
of its remaining possessions in North America to Great Britain. This
arrangement, however, proved temporary. French power rebounded
under the subsequent military leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte,
and on October 1, 1800, Napoleon induced a reluctant King Charles
IV of Spain to agree, for a consideration, to cede Louisiana back to
France. King Charles gave at least his verbal assent on the
condition that France would never alienate the territory to a third
power. With this treaty of retrocession, known as the Treaty of San
Ildefonso (confirmed March 21, 1801), would go not only the
growing and commercially significant port of New Orleans but the
strategic mouth of the Mississippi River.

Plan of New Orleans, 18th century.

Library of Congress, Map Division

SIMILAR TOPICS

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Treaty of Tordesillas
Good Friday Agreement
Reports of the supposed retrocession soon were received by the
U.S. government with deep misgivings. During the preceding 12
years, Americans had streamed westward into the valleys of
the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers. The very existence of
these new settlers depended on their right to use the Mississippi
River freely and to make transshipment of their exports at New
Orleans. By terms of the Treaty of San Lorenzo, Spain, in 1795, had
granted to the United States the right to ship goods originating in
American ports through the mouth of the Mississippi without paying
duty and also the right of deposit, or temporary storage, of American
goods at New Orleans for transshipment. But in 1802 Spain in effect
revoked the right of deposit, and so it was in an atmosphere of
growing tension in the West that Pres. Thomas Jefferson was
confronted with the prospect of a new, wily, and more powerful
keeper of the strategic window to the Gulf of Mexico.

Negotiations Between France And The

United States
Jefferson instructed Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister at Paris,
to take two steps: (1) to approach Napoleons minister, Charles-
Maurice de Talleyrand, with the object of preventing the
retrocession in the event this act had not yet been completed; and
(2) to try to purchase at least New Orleans if the property had
actually been transferred from Spain to France. Direct negotiations
with Talleyrand, however, appeared to be all but impossible. For
months Livingston had to be content with tantalizing glimmerings of
a possible deal between France and the United States. But even
these faded as news of the Spanish governors revocation of the
right of deposit reached the U.S. minister. With this intelligence he
had good reasons for thinking the worst: that Napoleon Bonaparte
may have been responsible for this unfortunate act and that his next
move might be to close the Mississippi River entirely to the
Americans. Livingston had but one trump to play, and he played it
with a flourish. He made it known that a rapprochement with Great
Britain might, after all, best serve the interests of his country, and at
that particular moment an Anglo-American rapprochement was
about the least of Napoleons desires.

Franois, marquis de Barb-Marbois (standing), showing a map to Robert Livingston

Architect of the Capitol

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There are good reasons to believe that French failure in Santo

Domingo (the island of Hispaniola), the imminence of renewed war
with Great Britain, and financial stringencies may all have prompted
Napoleon in 1803 to offer for sale to the United States the entire
Louisiana Territory. At this juncture, James Monroe arrived in Paris
as Jeffersons minister plenipotentiary; and even though the two
American ministers possessed neither instructions nor authority to
purchase the whole of Louisiana, the negotiations that followed
with Franois, marquis de Barb-Marbois, minister for the treasury,
acting for Napoleonmoved swiftly to a conclusion.

Defining The Purchase

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A treaty was signed on May 2 but was antedated to April 30. By its
terms the Louisiana Territory, in the form France had received it
from Spain, was sold to the United States. For this vast domain the
United States agreed to pay $11,250,000 outright and assumed
claims of its citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000.
Interest payments incidental to the final settlement made the total
price $27,267,622.

Hoisting American Colors, Louisiana Cession, oil on canvas by Thure de Thulstrup, 1903.

W. BussDe Agostini Editore/age fotostock

Precisely what the United States had purchased was unclear. The
wording of the treaty was vague; it did not clearly describe the
boundaries. It gave no assurances that West Florida was to be
considered a part of Louisiana; neither did it delineate the southwest
boundary. The American negotiators were fully aware of this.

Louisiana Purchase.

NARA

But before the United States could establish fixed boundaries to

Louisiana there arose a basic question concerning the
constitutionality of the purchase. Did the Constitution of the United
States provide for an act of this kind? The president, in principle a
strict constructionist, thought that an amendment to the Constitution
might be required to legalize the transaction; but, after due
consideration and considerable oratory, the Senate approved the
treaty by a vote of 24 to 7.
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The setting of fixed boundaries awaited negotiations with Spain and

Great Britain. The exasperating dispute with Spain over the
ownership of West Florida and Texas was finally settled by
the purchase of the Floridasfrom Spain in 1819 and the
establishment of a fixed southwest boundary line. This line followed
the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to the parallel of 32 N; ran
thence due north to the Red River, following this stream to the
meridian 100 W; thence north to the Arkansas River and along this
stream to its source; thence north or south, as the case might be
(the source of the Arkansas was not then known), to the parallel of
42 N and west along this line to the Pacific Ocean. The northern
boundary was amicably established by an Anglo-American
convention in 1818. It established the 49 parallel N between
 the Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains as the American-
Canadian border. The Rocky (then referred to as Stony)
Mountains were accepted as the western limit of the Louisiana
Territory, and the Mississippi River was considered for all practical
purposes the eastern boundary of the great purchase. Much of the
territory turned out to contain rich mineral resources, productive soil,
valuable grazing land, forests, and wildlife resources of inestimable
value. Out of this empire were carved in their entirety the states
of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma; in addition, the area included
most of the land in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana,
and Minnesota.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA

MORE ABOUT Louisiana Purchase

9 REFERENCES FOUND IN BRITANNICA ARTICLES

Assorted Reference

control of the Mississippi River (in Mississippi River: Early settlement and exploration)
history of United States (in United States: The Jeffersonian Republicans in power)

Louisiana (in Louisiana: Early settlement)

Texas (in Texas: Settlement)
role of

Adams (in John Quincy Adams: Break with the Federalists)

Barb-Marbois (in Franois, marquis de Barb-Marbois)
Jefferson (in Thomas Jefferson: Presidency)
Livingston (in Robert R. Livingston)
Monroe (in James Monroe: The Louisiana Purchase)
EXTERNAL LINKS
HistoryNet - Louisiana Purchase
Kansapedia - Kansas State Historical Society - Louisiana Purchase
The Jefferson Monticello - Louisiana Purchase
BRITANNICA WEB SITES

Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.
Louisiana Purchase - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)

In 1803 the area of the United States was much smaller than it is today. In that year,
however, the country bought the Louisiana Territory from France. The territory
stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of
Mexico to Canada. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States.

Louisiana Purchase - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

In 1803 United States President Thomas Jefferson set the example of getting new
territory by purchase rather than by war. He did so by buying from France the vast
tract of land known as Louisiana. The Louisiana Purchase included the western half
of the Mississippi River basin-far more land than what is now the state of Louisiana.
Out of this territory were carved the entire states of Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, as well as Louisiana. In addition,
the Louisiana Purchase included most of the land in what are now the states of
Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Minnesota.

ARTICLE CONTRIBUTORS
ARTICLE HISTORY
FEEDBACK
Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article!Contact our editors with your feedback.

The Louisiana Territory had been the object of Old World interest for
many years before 1803. Explorations and scattered settlements in
the 17th and 18th centuries had given France control over the river
and title to most of the Mississippi valley.
The first serious disruption of French control over Louisiana came
during the Seven Years War. In 1762 France ceded Louisiana west
of the Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred virtually all
of its remaining possessions in North America to Great Britain. This
arrangement, however, proved temporary. French power rebounded
under the subsequent military leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte,
and on October 1, 1800, Napoleon induced a reluctant King Charles
IV of Spain to agree, for a consideration, to cede Louisiana back to
France. King Charles gave at least his verbal assent on the
condition that France would never alienate the territory to a third
power. With this treaty of retrocession, known as the Treaty of San
Ildefonso (confirmed March 21, 1801), would go not only the
growing and commercially significant port of New Orleans but the
strategic mouth of the Mississippi River
Reports of the supposed retrocession soon were received by the
U.S. government with deep misgivings. During the preceding 12
years, Americans had streamed westward into the valleys of
the Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio rivers. The very existence of
these new settlers depended on their right to use the Mississippi
River freely and to make transshipment of their exports at New
Orleans. By terms of the Treaty of San Lorenzo, Spain, in 1795, had
granted to the United States the right to ship goods originating in
American ports through the mouth of the Mississippi without paying
duty and also the right of deposit, or temporary storage, of American
goods at New Orleans for transshipment. But in 1802 Spain in effect
revoked the right of deposit, and so it was in an atmosphere of
growing tension in the West that Pres. Thomas Jefferson was
confronted with the prospect of a new, wily, and more powerful
keeper of the strategic window to the Gulf of Mexico.

Negotiations Between France And The

United States
Jefferson instructed Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister at Paris,
to take two steps: (1) to approach Napoleons minister, Charles-
Maurice de Talleyrand, with the object of preventing the
retrocession in the event this act had not yet been completed; and
(2) to try to purchase at least New Orleans if the property had
actually been transferred from Spain to France. Direct negotiations
with Talleyrand, however, appeared to be all but impossible. For
months Livingston had to be content with tantalizing glimmerings of
 a possible deal between France and the United States. But even
these faded as news of the Spanish governors revocation of the
right of deposit reached the U.S. minister. With this intelligence he
had good reasons for thinking the worst: that Napoleon Bonaparte
may have been responsible for this unfortunate act and that his next
move might be to close the Mississippi River entirely to the
Americans. Livingston had but one trump to play, and he played it
with a flourish. He made it known that a rapprochement with Great
Britain might, after all, best serve the interests of his country, and at
that particular moment an Anglo-American rapprochement was
about the least of Napoleons desires.

Franois, marquis de Barb-Marbois (standing), showing a map to Robert Livingston

Architect of the Capitol

BRITANNICA STORIES

DEMYSTIFIED / TECHNOLOGY

How Does Wi-Fi Work?

SPOTLIGHT / SOCIETY

Happy Halloween

SPOTLIGHT / SCIENCE

The Fermi Paradox: Where Are All the Aliens?


DEMYSTIFIED / SOCIETY

Why Do We Carve Pumpkins at Halloween?

There are good reasons to believe that French failure in Santo

Domingo (the island of Hispaniola), the imminence of renewed war
with Great Britain, and financial stringencies may all have prompted
Napoleon in 1803 to offer for sale to the United States the entire
Louisiana Territory. At this juncture, James Monroe arrived in Paris
as Jeffersons minister plenipotentiary; and even though the two
American ministers possessed neither instructions nor authority to
purchase the whole of Louisiana, the negotiations that followed
with Franois, marquis de Barb-Marbois, minister for the treasury,
acting for Napoleonmoved swiftly to a conclusion.

Defining The Purchase

A treaty was signed on May 2 but was antedated to April 30. By its
terms the Louisiana Territory, in the form France had received it
from Spain, was sold to the United States. For this vast domain the
United States agreed to pay $11,250,000 outright and assumed
claims of its citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000.
Interest payments incidental to the final settlement made the total
price $27,267,622.

Hoisting American Colors, Louisiana Cession, oil on canvas by Thure de Thulstrup, 1903.

W. BussDe Agostini Editore/age fotostock

 Precisely what the United States had purchased was unclear. The
wording of the treaty was vague; it did not clearly describe the
boundaries. It gave no assurances that West Florida was to be
considered a part of Louisiana; neither did it delineate the southwest
boundary. The American negotiators were fully aware of this.

Louisiana Purchase.

NARA

But before the United States could establish fixed boundaries to

Louisiana there arose a basic question concerning the
constitutionality of the purchase. Did the Constitution of the United
States provide for an act of this kind? The president, in principle a
strict constructionist, thought that an amendment to the Constitution
might be required to legalize the transaction; but, after due
consideration and considerable oratory, the Senate approved the
treaty by a vote of 24 to 7.
BRITANNICA LISTS & QUIZZES

SCIENCE QUIZ

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How 9 Famous Cities Got Their Nicknames

The setting of fixed boundaries awaited negotiations with Spain and

Great Britain. The exasperating dispute with Spain over the
ownership of West Florida and Texas was finally settled by
the purchase of the Floridasfrom Spain in 1819 and the
establishment of a fixed southwest boundary line. This line followed
the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to the parallel of 32 N; ran
thence due north to the Red River, following this stream to the
meridian 100 W; thence north to the Arkansas River and along this
stream to its source; thence north or south, as the case might be
(the source of the Arkansas was not then known), to the parallel of
42 N and west along this line to the Pacific Ocean. The northern
boundary was amicably established by an Anglo-American
convention in 1818. It established the 49 parallel N between
the Lake of the Woods and the Rocky Mountains as the American-
Canadian border. The Rocky (then referred to as Stony)
Mountains were accepted as the western limit of the Louisiana
Territory, and the Mississippi River was considered for all practical
purposes the eastern boundary of the great purchase. Much of the
territory turned out to contain rich mineral resources, productive soil,
valuable grazing land, forests, and wildlife resources of inestimable
value. Out of this empire were carved in their entirety the states
of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South
Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma; in addition, the area included
most of the land in Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana,
and Minnesota.

ADDITIONAL MEDIA
 MORE ABOUT Louisiana Purchase
9 REFERENCES FOUND IN BRITANNICA ARTICLES

Assorted Reference

control of the Mississippi River (in Mississippi River: Early settlement and exploration)
history of United States (in United States: The Jeffersonian Republicans in power)

Louisiana (in Louisiana: Early settlement)

Texas (in Texas: Settlement)
role of

Adams (in John Quincy Adams: Break with the Federalists)

Barb-Marbois (in Franois, marquis de Barb-Marbois)
Jefferson (in Thomas Jefferson: Presidency)
Livingston (in Robert R. Livingston)
Monroe (in James Monroe: The Louisiana Purchase)
EXTERNAL LINKS
HistoryNet - Louisiana Purchase
Kansapedia - Kansas State Historical Society - Louisiana Purchase
The Jefferson Monticello - Louisiana Purchase
BRITANNICA WEB SITES

Articles from Britannica encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

Louisiana Purchase - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)

In 1803 the area of the United States was much smaller than it is today. In that year,
however, the country bought the Louisiana Territory from France. The territory
 stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Gulf of
Mexico to Canada. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States.

Louisiana Purchase - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

In 1803 United States President Thomas Jefferson set the example of getting new
territory by purchase rather than by war. He did so by buying from France the vast
tract of land known as Louisiana. The Louisiana Purchase included the western half
of the Mississippi River basin-far more land than what is now the state of Louisiana.
Out of this territory were carved the entire states of Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, as well as Louisiana. In addition,
the Louisiana Purchase included most of the land in what are now the states of
Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Minnesota.

ARTICLE CONTRIBUTORS
ARTICLE HISTORY
FEEDBACK
Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article!Contact our editors with your feedback.

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.

The Louisiana Purchase

As the United States spread across the Appalachians, the Mississippi River
became an increasingly important conduit for the produce of Americas West
(which at that time referred to the land between the Appalachians and the
Mississippi). Since 1762, Spain had owned the territory of Louisiana, which
included 828,000 square miles. The territory made up all or part of fifteen
modern U.S. states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
The Pinckney treaty of 1795 had resolved friction between Spain and the United
States over the right to navigate the Mississippi and the right for Americans to
transfer their goods to ocean-going vessels at New Orleans. With the Pinckney
treaty in place and the weak Spanish empire in control of Louisiana, American
statesmen felt comfortable that the United States westward expansion would not
be restricted in the future.
This situation was threatened by Napoleon Bonapartes plans to revive the French
empire in the New World. He planned to recapture the valuable sugar colony of
St. Domingue from a slave rebellion, and then use Louisiana as the granary for
his empire. France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800 and took possession in
1802, sending a large French army to St. Domingue and preparing to send
another to New Orleans. Westerners became very apprehensive about having the
more-powerful French in control of New Orleans: President Thomas Jefferson
noted, There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and
habitual enemy. It is New Orleans.

James Monroe
In addition to making military preparations for a conflict in the Mississippi
Valley, Jefferson sent James Monroe to join Robert Livingston in France to try to
purchase New Orleans and West Florida for as much as $10 million. Failing that,
they were to attempt to create a military alliance with England. Meanwhile, the
French Army in St. Domingue was being decimated by yellow fever, and war
between France and England still threatened. Napoleon decided to give up his
plans for Louisiana, and offered a surprised Monroe and Livingston the entire
territory of Louisiana for $15 million. Although this far exceeded their
instructions from President Jefferson, they agreed.
When news of the sale reached the United States, the West was elated.
PresidentJefferson, however, was in a quandary. He had always advocated strict
adherence to the letter of the Constitution, yet there was no provision
empowering him to purchase territory. Given the public support for the purchase
and the obvious value of Louisiana to the future growth of the United States,
however, Jefferson decided to ignore the legalistic interpretation of the
Constitution and forgo the passage of a Constitutional amendment to validate the
purchase. This decision contributed to the principle of implied powers of the
federal government.

Jefferson's plans for the nation depended upon western expansion and access to
international markets for American farm products. This vision was threatened, however,
when France regained control of Louisiana. NAPOLEON, who had now risen to power in
the French Revolution, threatened to block American access to the important port of
New Orleans on the Mississippi River. New American settlements west of the
Appalachian Mountains depended upon river transport to get their goods to market
since overland trade to the east was expensive and impractical.

Blocking American access to New Orleans was such a grave threat to American interests
that President Jefferson considered changing his traditional foreign policy stance to an
anti-French alliance with the British. At the same time that he sent diplomats to France
to bargain for continued trade access along the Mississippi, he also sent diplomats to
Britain to pursue other policy options. James Monroe, the top person negotiating in
Paris, was empowered to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for between two and
ten million dollars.

Surprisingly, however, Napoleon offered much more. He was militarily overextended

and needing money to continue his war against Britain. Knowing full well that he could
not force Americans out of the land France possessed in North America, Napoleon
offered all of LOUISIANA to the U.S. for 15 million dollars. The massive territory
stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and more than doubled the
size of the United States.

L. Ducis

Napoleon with the King of Rome (Napoleon III) sitting on his lap. The elder Napolean was crowned Emperor of
France by Pope Pius VII in 1804.

Napoleon's asking price worked out to be about four cents an acre.

The deal was struck in April 1803, but it brought a good deal of controversy. While
American development in the 19th century depended on WESTERN EXPANSION, it also
raised controversial issues that might lead to the disunion of the United States. Some
New England Federalists, for example, began to talk of seceding from the U.S. since
their political power was dramatically reduced by the purchase.

Further, Jefferson had clearly not followed his own strict interpretation of the
Constitution. Federalist critics howled that the Constitution nowhere permitted the
federal government to purchase new land. Jefferson was troubled by the inconsistency,
but in the end decided that the Constitution's treaty-making provisions allowed him
room to act.

Most of the Senate agreed and the LOUISIANA PURCHASE easily passed 26 to 6. The
dramatic expansion also contradicted Jefferson's commitment to reduce the national
debt as swiftly as possible. Although 15 million dollars was a relatively small sum for
such a large amount of land, it was still an enormous price tag for the modest federal
budget of the day.

Thomas Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803 over 600 million acres at less than 4 an acre
was an economic as well as a political victory, as it avoided a possible war with the French.

The Louisiana Purchase demonstrates Jefferson's ability to make pragmatic political

decisions. Although contrary to some of his central principles, guaranteeing western
expansion was so important to Jefferson's overall vision that he took bold action. The
gains were dramatic, as the territory acquired would in time add 13 new states to the
union. In 1812, Louisiana became the first state to join the union from land bought in
the purchase. Louisiana was allowed to enter the United States with its French legal
traditions largely in place. Even today, Louisiana's legal code retains many elements
that do not follow English common law traditions. The federal system could be
remarkably flexible.

Westward Expansion Louisiana Purchase History >> Westward Expansion

With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States acquired a large area
of land from the French. It was the single largest purchase of land ever by the
United States and doubled the size of the country. Why did the United States
want more land? The United States had been growing rapidly. In search of
new land to plant crops and raise livestock, people had been expanding to the
west past the Appalachian Mountains and into the Northwest Territory. As
these lands became crowded, people needed more land and the obvious
place to expand was to the west. How much did it cost? Thomas Jefferson
wanted to buy the settlement of New Orleans from the French. It was a major
seaport that was fed from the Mississippi River, making it important to many
American businesses. He sent Robert Livingston, the U.S. Minister to France,
to try and buy the land from the French Emperor Napoleon. At first Napoleon
refused to sell. He had hopes of creating a massive empire that included the
Americas. However, soon Napoleon began to have troubles in Europe and he
needed money desperately. James Monroe traveled to France to work with
Robert Livingston. In 1803, Napoleon offered to sell the entire Louisiana
Territory to the United States for $15 million. United States Expansion Map
from the National Atlas of the United States. The Louisiana Purchase is
shown in green (Click picture to see larger view) How big was it? The
Louisiana Purchase was huge. It totaled 828,000 square miles and all or part
of what would later become 15 different states. It doubled the size of the
United States and made it a major world nation. Borders The Louisiana
Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky
Mountains in the west. Its southernmost tip was the port city of New Orleans
and the Gulf of Mexico. To the North it included much of Minnesota, North
Dakota, and Montana up to the border of Canada. Opposition At the time,
many leaders in the United States were against the Louisiana Purchase. They
thought that Thomas Jefferson didn't have the right to make such a large
purchase of land and that we would soon be at war with Spain over the land.
The purchase was nearly cancelled by Congress and only passed by the vote
of 59-57. Exploration President Jefferson organized expeditions to explore the
new land. The most famous expedition was that of Lewis and Clark. They
traveled up the Missouri River and eventually went all the way to the Pacific
Ocean. Another expedition was the Pike Expedition led by Zebulon Pike which
explored the Great Plains and into Colorado where they discovered Pike's
Peak. There was also the Red River Expedition which explored the
Southwest.

Louisiana Purchase summary: The United States bought 828,000 square miles of land
from France in 1803. The French controlled this region from 1699 until 1762 when it
became Spanish property because France gave it to Spain as a present, since they were
allies. But under Napoleon Bonaparte, France revived the aspirations to build an empire
in North America so the territory was taken back in 1800. However, those big plans were
not meant to be because Napoleon needed to concentrate on preparations for war with the
British Empire and so the land was sold to the United States. The price was 15 million
dollars.

The purchased territory included the whole of todays Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas,
Oklahoma, and Nebraska, parts of Minnesota and Louisiana west of Mississippi River,
including New Orleans, big parts of North and northeastern New Mexico, South Dakota,
northern Texas, some parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado as well as portions of
Canadian provinces Alberta and Saskatchewan.

homas Jefferson was the American president at the time of the Louisiana Purchase. The
United States initially wanted to buy only New Orleans and the land around it. The
purchase met with the strong opposition in the States on account of being
unconstitutional. Those accusations were accurate, at least to some extent. President
Jefferson couldnt deny that the Constitution of the United States did not provide for
acquiring new territories but still he decided to proceed with the purchase since the
removal of French presence in the region was such an important issue.

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.
[T]his little event, of France possessing herself of Louisiana, ... is the
embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the
Atlantic and involve in its effects their highest destinies.1
 1805 Map of Louisiana by Samuel Lewis

President Thomas Jefferson wrote this prediction in an April 1802

letter to Pierre Samuel du Pont amid reports that Spain would
retrocede to France the vast territory of Louisiana. As the United
States had expanded westward, navigation of the Mississippi River
and access to the port of New Orleans had become critical to
American commerce, so this transfer of authority was cause for
concern. Within a week of his letter to du Pont, Jefferson wrote U.S.
Minister to France Robert Livingston: "every eye in the US. is now
fixed on this affair of Louisiana. perhaps nothing since the
revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through
the body of the nation."2

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Jefferson and Lewis and Clark

Louisiana Purchase
An Article Courtesy Of The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. Click For
More.

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.
[T]his little event, of France possessing herself of Louisiana, ... is the
embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the
Atlantic and involve in its effects their highest destinies.1
 1805 Map of Louisiana by Samuel Lewis

President Thomas Jefferson wrote this prediction in an April 1802 letter to

Pierre Samuel du Pont amid reports that Spain would retrocede to France
the vast territory of Louisiana. As the United States had expanded
westward, navigation of the Mississippi River and access to the port of
New Orleans had become critical to American commerce, so this transfer
of authority was cause for concern. Within a week of his letter to du Pont,
Jefferson wrote U.S. Minister to France Robert Livingston: "every eye in
the US. is now fixed on this affair of Louisiana. perhaps nothing since the
revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body
of the nation."2
BACKGROUND
The presence of Spain was not so provocative. A conflict over navigation
of the Mississippi had been resolved in 1795 with a treaty in which Spain
recognized the United States' right to use the river and to deposit goods in
New Orleans for transfer to oceangoing vessels. In his letter to Livingston,
Jefferson wrote, "Spain might have retained [New Orleans] quietly for
years. her pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce her to
increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the place would be
hardly felt by us." He went on to speculate that "it would not perhaps be
very long before some circumstance might arise which might make the
cession of it to us the price of something of more worth to her."3
 Napoleon Bonaparte

Jefferson's vision of obtaining territory from Spain was altered by the

prospect of having the much more powerful France of Napoleon Bonaparte
as a next-door neighbor.
France had surrendered its North American possessions at the end of the
French and Indian War. New Orleans and Louisiana west of the
Mississippi were transferred to Spain in 1762, and French territories east of
the Mississippi, including Canada, were ceded to Britain the next year. But
Napoleon, who took power in 1799, aimed to restore France's presence on
the continent.
The Louisiana situation reached a crisis point in October 1802 when
Spain's King Charles IV signed a decree transferring the territory to France
and the Spanish agent in New Orleans, acting on orders from the Spanish
court, revoked Americans' access to the port's warehouses. These moves
prompted outrage in the United States.

1815 Plan of New Orleans

While Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison worked to resolve

the issue through diplomatic channels, some factions in the West and the
opposition Federalist Party called for war and advocated secession by the
western territories in order to seize control of the lower Mississippi and
New Orleans.

NEGOTIATIONS
Aware of the need for action more visible than diplomatic maneuvering
and concerned with the threat of disunion, Jefferson in January 1803
recommended that James Monroe join Livingston in Paris as minister
extraordinary. (Later that same month, Jefferson asked Congress to fund an
expedition that would cross the Louisiana territory, regardless of who
controlled it, and proceed on to the Pacific. This would become the Lewis
and Clark Expedition.) Monroe was a close personal friend and political
ally of Jefferson's, but he also owned land in Kentucky and had spoken
openly for the rights of the western territories.
Jefferson urged Monroe to accept the posting, saying he possessed "the
unlimited confidence of the administration & of the Western
people." Jefferson added: "all eyes, all hopes, are now fixed on you, .... for
on the event of this mission depends the future destinies of this republic."4
Shortly thereafter, Jefferson wrote to Kentucky's governor, James Garrard,
to inform him of Monroe's appointment and to assure him that Monroe was
empowered to enter into "such arrangements as may effectually secure our
rights and interest in the Mississipi, and in the country Eastward of that."5
As Jefferson noted in that letter, Monroe's charge was to obtain land east of
the Mississippi. Monroe's instructions, drawn up by Madison and approved
by Jefferson, allocated up to $10 million for the purchase of New Orleans
and all or part of the Floridas. If this bid failed, Monroe was instructed to
try to purchase just New Orleans, or, at the very least, secure U.S. access to
the Mississippi and the port.
But when Monroe reached Paris on April 12, 1803, he learned from
Livingston that a very different offer was on the table.
 Plan du Sige de Santo Domingo

Napoleon's plans to re-establish France in the New World were unraveling.

The French army sent to suppress a rebellion by slaves and free blacks in
the sugar-rich colony of Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) had been
decimated by yellow fever, and a new war with Britain seemed inevitable.
France's minister of finance, Franois de Barb-Marbois, who had always
doubted Louisiana's worth, counseled Napoleon that Louisiana would be
less valuable without Saint Domingue and, in the event of war, the territory
would likely be taken by the British from Canada. France could not afford
to send forces to occupy the entire Mississippi Valley, so why not abandon
the idea of empire in America and sell the territory to the United States?
Napoleon agreed. On April 11, Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand told Livingston that France was willing to sell all of Louisiana.
Livingston informed Monroe upon his arrival the next day.
Seizing on what Jefferson later called "a fugitive occurrence," Monroe and
Livingston immediately entered into negotiations and on April 30 reached
an agreement that exceeded their authority the purchase of the
Louisiana territory, including New Orleans, for $15 million. The
acquisition of approximately 827,000 square miles would double the size
of the United States.
Though rumors of the purchase preceded notification from Monroe and
Livingston, their message reached Washington in time for an official
announcement on July 4, 1803.
 The Louisiana Purchase Treaty

The purchase treaty had to be ratified by the end of October, which gave
Jefferson and his Cabinet time to deliberate the issues of boundaries and
constitutionality. Exact boundaries would have to be negotiated with Spain
and England and so would not be set for several years, and Jefferson's
Cabinet members argued that the constitutional amendment he proposed
was not necessary. As time for ratification of the purchase treaty grew
short, Jefferson accepted his Cabinet's counsel and rationalized: "it is the
case of a guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an
important adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this for
your good."6
The Senate ratified the treaty on October 20 by a vote of 24 to 7. Spain,
upset by the sale but without the military power to block it, formally
returned Louisiana to France on November 30. France officially
transferred the territory to the Americans on December 20, and the United
States took formal possession on December 30.
Jefferson's prediction of a "tornado" that would burst upon the countries on
both sides of the Atlantic had been averted, but his belief that the affair of
Louisiana would impact upon "their highest destinies" proved prophetic
indeed.
-Gaye Wilson, 2003. Originally published as "Jefferson's Big Deal: The
Louisiana Purchase," in Monticello Newsletter, 14 (Spring 2003).
TIMELINE OF THE LOUISIANA
TERRITORY
1682 Ren-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, claims for France all
territory drained by Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico
and names it Louisiana.
1718 New Orleans is founded.
1762 France cedes New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi to
Spain.
1763 France cedes territories east of the Mississippi and north of New
Orleans to Britain.
1783 Treaty of Paris gives newly independent United States free access to
the Mississippi.
1784 Spain closes lower Mississippi and New Orleans to foreigners.
1789 French Revolution begins.
1790 Slaves revolt on Caribbean island of Saint Domingue, France's
richest colony.
1795 Spain reopens the Mississippi and New Orleans to Americans.
1799 Napoleon Bonaparte seizes power in France.
1800 Spain secretly agrees to return Louisiana to France in exchange for
Etruria, a small kingdom in Italy.
1801 President Jefferson names Robert Livingston minister to France.
1802 Spain cedes Louisiana to France. New Orleans is closed to American
shipping. French army sent to re-establish control in Saint Domingue is
decimated.

Events of 1803
January Jefferson sends James Monroe to join Livingston in France.
February Napoleon decides against sending more troops to Saint
Domingue and instead orders forces to sail to New Orleans.
March Napoleon cancels military expedition to Louisiana.
April 11 Foreign Minister Talleyrand tells Livingston that France is
willing to sell all of Louisiana.
April 12 Monroe arrives in Paris and joins Livingston in negotiations
with Finance Minister Barb-Marbois.
April 30 Monroe, Livingston, and Barb-Marbois agree on terms of
sale: $15 million for approximately 827,000 square miles of territory.
May 18 Britain declares war on France.
July 4 Purchase is officially announced in United States.
October 20 U.S. Senate ratifies purchase treaty.
November 30 Spain formally transfers Louisiana to France.
December 20 France formally transfers Louisiana to United States.
December 30 United States takes formal possession of Louisiana.
- Gaye Wilson, 2003. Originally published as "Timeline Louisiana
Territory," in Monticello Newsletter, 14 (Spring 2003)