National Geographic also adds that it paved the way for the imperial expansion and conquest of the Native American tribes of the West. Your email address will not be published. The Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. [42] Barings had a close relationship with Hope & Co. of Amsterdam, and the two banking houses worked together to facilitate and underwrite the purchase. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction. [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. It cannot be understated just how important the Louisiana Purchase was to the United States. Thomas Jefferson 4. 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. To part with the territory so soon after its transfer left many French aristocrats puzzled. These wars, the Napoleonic Wars, lasted from 1803 to 1815 and led, as described by the New World Encyclopedia, to a brief French dominance of Europe. In this light the deal can be seen as a win-win between Napoleon and the United States. 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. (80) Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the United States in 1803 because he hoped to increase the U. S. status against what nation?A. Negotiating with French Treasury Minister Franois Barb-Marbois, the American representatives quickly agreed to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana after it was offered. [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]. In the year of 1803, the Louisiana purchase occurred. [45] In 2021 dollars, the $15 million purchase price is equivalent to $336.92million. The Federalists even tried to prove the land belonged to Spain, not France, but available records proved otherwise. Everybody who has taken grade-school history knows the story. To Napoleon's line of thinking, if the United States took control of Louisiana, then it would deny Britain the opportunity of conquering it. 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. The confederations that are called perpetual, only last till one of the contracting parties finds it to its interest to break them, and it is to prevent the danger, to which the colossal power of England exposes us, that I would provide a remedy. Saint-Domingue was a powder keg, ready to explode. Instead, the area encompasses 15 states and two Canadian provinces according to today's terms. 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 France, and then from France to the United States. Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. 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. Why would France decide to give up such a crucial territory for only $15 million, or the bargain basement price of 3-4 cents an acre? Some French leaders predicted that eventually the Louisiana territory would revolt in a bid for independence following the principles of the American Revolution. As tensions in Europe continued to grow, the unprofitable territory seemed to be more of a liability than asset. French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte ultimately sold the Louisiana territory to the United States for four reasons: the French government needed money, an impending war with Great Britain, the fallout from the Haitian Revolution, and the difficulty in maintaining a North American colony. 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. Even the commanding General, Napoleons brother-in-law Charles Leclerc, succumbed to tropical disease as did tens of thousands of other troops.1. Nobody really knows what post-victory plans for New Orleans and Upper Louisiana were given by the British government to Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and his second-in-command Major General Samuel Gibbs because both generals were killed in action at the Battle of New Orleans. All these soldiers needed to be fed, housed, and paid. Why did France sell Louisiana to the US? 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. Of 176 electoral votes cast, all but 14 were in his favor. However, France's failure to suppress a revolt in Saint-Domingue, coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted Napoleon to consider selling Louisiana to the United States. From March 10 to September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district, under its first civil commandant, Amos Stoddard, who was appointed by the War Department. To recap, Napoleon ultimately sold the Louisiana territory for the following reasons: In hindsight it is easy for historians to criticize Napoleons decision. 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. As told by Michigan State University, both of them were shocked when the French minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, asked how much they would pay for the entire territory. 55, no. It was even subject to a speculative bubble which ruined fortunes. The key to opening the western goal was securing the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Territory. He bought the Louisiana territory from France, which was being led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time, for 15,000,000 USD. While this was just a rumor, he had made up his mind to sell the territory. According to the memoirs of Franois Barb-Marbois, in what was a prophetic statement foreshadowing the American Civil War, Napoleon said, "Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. With war in Europe likely, the French did not have the resources to defend and maintain the Louisiana territory. [18] After the signing Livingston famously stated, "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. While the concept of "manifest destiny" would not make it into the American lexicon until 1845, the idea that the United States had a divine mission to expand had been in place since the earliest colonial times. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and nearly doubled the size of the U.S. What was one reason the napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the united states 2 See answers Advertisement JaxonA One reason Napoleon sold it because he needed the money. While Napoleon originally tried to sell the territory for $22 million, the two sides eventually agreed to a sale at $15 million. Some of those other sources included the colonies and in this instance, the Louisiana territory. [60] 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. [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. The Louisiana Territory was established, as described by Smithsonian Magazine, in 1682, when the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River, put up a cross and column, and declared to a group of puzzled Native Americans that the entire river basin belonged to France. White House 3. [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 this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. pp. 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. [14][15] The total of $15million is equivalent to about $337million in 2021 dollars, or 64 cents per acre. 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. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to think you can establish a global empire, and Napoleon Bonaparte is no exception. Napoleon inherently knew that the peace would not last and that France needed to prepare for impending war with Great Britain once again. 2, 1995, pp. a Federalist judge who wanted his commission granted. The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 5957. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 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. Regardless of its legality, Smithsonian Magazine details how in order to finance the transaction, several British banks actually bought the territory and turned it over to the United States in exchange for bonds at 6% interest. Among Eurocentric circles, the Louisiana Purchase was seen as one of the greatest land deals in history. [48], A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. I renounce Louisiana. is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores . Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. Who was President at the time of the Embargo Act? Barings relayed to order to Hopes, which declined to comply, allowing the final payments to be made to France in April 1804. How many amendments make up the Bill of Rights? II, Sec. Perhaps the most important reason as to why Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the United States was the Haitian Revolution. There was no arguing with Napoleon, who would, after all,crown himself Emperor in 1804. The Sac and the Fox lived on the northern Mississippi River, the Osage on the Missouri River and on the Arkansas River in present eastern Oklahoma, and the Quapaw at the . At the time of the purchase, the territory of Louisiana's non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were enslaved Africans. The first plan of government used by the United States was under the: Who was the President at the time of the Alien and Sedition Act? The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803. What's more, as described by Medium, the French ruler believed that a more powerful United States was better for France. 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. To read more on what we're all about, learn more about us here. 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. 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. Jefferson ultimately came to the conclusion before the ratification of the treaty that the purchase was to protect the citizens of the United States therefore making it constitutional. A final reason for Napoleons fateful decision was that he foresaw the difficulty in maintaining a French colony in North America across the Atlantic and so close to the United States. Which one of the following men was not a member of Washington's first Cabinet? The purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. American Indians were also present in large numbers. [citation needed], 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. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began preparing to invade Great Britain. Washington University in St. Louis Press. As the Library of Congress describes, Saint-Domingue was incredibly valuable. 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. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports. Napoleon was reported to have said of Louisiana in his treasury minister's memoir, "To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.". Why did Napoleon Sell the Louisiana Territory? 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. While the United States kept Napoleon at arms length and enacted the Embargo Act of 1807 against both Britain and France, the issue of British impressment led directly to the important War of 1812, thereby indirectly helping Napoleons cause by diverting British resources from Europe. [59] 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. Even if the British did not seize the territory, the United States also posed a significant future threat. While this strategy was successful at first, by 1803, disease and heavy casualties forced the French to withdraw. The . [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. Napoleon saw in the sale of Louisiana something he needed more than anything else cold, hard cash. It was the French who sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. [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. American diplomats Robert Livingston and James Monroepurchased the Louisiana Territory from the French for $15 million dollars, or four cents an acre, in 1803. France The Louisiana Purchase was a land purchase made by United States president, Thomas Jefferson, in 1803. On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence. 1803. John Adams 2. Acquisition of Louisiana was a long-term goal of President Thomas Jefferson, who was especially eager to gain control of the crucial Mississippi River port of New Orleans. The French had no active administration over the territory and there were few French settlers. The Louisiana Purchase had major consequences for the United States. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2123552. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States. 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]. Would that make the United States too powerful? 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. 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. The United States was leery of Frances intentions with the territory, and the port city of New Orleans was critical to the US economy.2. The first reason that Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory was that the French government was in need of money. Knowing that war was imminent, Napoleon sensed two opportunities by selling the Louisiana territory. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. According to the University of Kentucky, slaves outnumbered free people at least 10 to 1. When the United States found out that instead of Spain as their neighbor, it was to be France under Napoleon with imperial ambitions, the Americans feared that their access to the Mississippi would be cut off. 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. Louisiana under Spanish control fared little better. Just three weeks earlier, on November 30, 1803, Spanish officials had formally conveyed the colonial lands and their administration to France. 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 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. In addition, the DunbarHunter Expedition (18041805) explored the Ouachita River watershed. Monroe, along with the minister to France, Robert Livingston, made the inquiry. 3, 1904, pp. Your email address will not be published. Following French defeat in the Seven Years' War, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi, and the British received the territory to the east of the river. 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. The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane, lit. History in Charts is a website dedicated to writing about historical topics and diving deeper into the data behind different events, time periods, places, and people. How was the Louisiana Territory acquired? Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801[9] with the authorization to purchase New Orleans. 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. Ultimately, the French need for more money was a significant factor in Napoleons decision to sell Louisiana. [25] The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. While the dreams of colonial domination evaporated, Napoleon turned his attention towards establishing an empire across the European continent instead. 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. At the same time, this territorial expansion also allowed for the growth and expansion of slavery in the United States, which finally culminated in the American Civil War. [57], 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). Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves. Who sold the Louisiana Territory to the United states? On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. [55], Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize four missions to explore and map the new territory. Who was President at the time of the Louisiana Purchase? [42], Although the War of the Third Coalition, which brought France into a war with the United Kingdom, began before the purchase was completed, the British government initially allowed the deal to proceed as it was better for the neutral Americans to own the territory than the hostile French. Jefferson justified the purchase by rationalizing, "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." Despite the implications of the Louisiana Purchase for both France and the United States, Native Americans were unquestionably the biggest losers in the arrangement. 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 Military expenditures accounted for nearly 60% of the overall budget, a staggering number to maintain.2. National Geographicpoints out that in modern dollars, the Louisiana Purchase would have cost $342 million. Earlier in 1803, Francis Baring and Company of London had become the U.S. government's official banking agent in London following the failure of Bird, Savage & Bird. This was emphasized when in the memoir of Franois Barb-Marbois, Napoleon gave up his claim to the territory saying, "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. 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. In 1803, the United States nearly doubled in size when it bought the Louisiana Territory in a deal that shaped history. [5], Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. Critics in Congress worried whether these "foreigners", unacquainted with democracy, could or should become citizens. To learn more about US history, check out this timeline of the history of the United States. Lucien later reported in a memoirthat the pair sought out their brother in the Tuileries, where they found the ruler indulging in a bath. [31], Madison (the "Father of the Constitution") assured Jefferson that the Louisiana Purchase was well within even the strictest interpretation of the Constitution. As the lands were being gradually settled by American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired "piece by piece." [44][42] With the bankers' help, the French and American negotiators settled on a price of 80 million francs ($15 million), down from an initial price of 100 million francs, a sum the Americans could not afford and the financers could not provide. Britain and France renewed hostilities on May 18, 1803, shortly after the deal was finalized.