The purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. Gentlemen, he announced, think what you please about it. As the Library of Congress describes, Saint-Domingue was incredibly valuable. | READ MORE, 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Francis Baring's son Alexander and Pierre Labouchre from Hopes arrived in Paris in April 1803 to assist with the negotiations. By 1860, there weremore than100,000 slaves in Missouri, and slaves were valued at over $44 million (about $112 billion today). Louisiana Purchase - Definition, Facts & Importance Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. Why France Sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US There never was a government in which less could be done by negotiation than here, a frustrated Livingston wrote to Madison on September 1, 1802. Why did France agree to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States? Cantonment Belle Fontaine 8051826 The First U.S. Fort West of the Mississippi River. [10], In 1803, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman, began to help negotiate with France at the request of Jefferson. By April 30, 1803, they hashed out an agreement where the Americans would pay $15 million, a considerable reduction, although its constitutionality was debated. Napoleon sent a massive 30,000 troops French expeditionary force commanded by his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to St. Domingue to accomplish this goal. [21] 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. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. He argued that the three-year term of the 1795 treaty that had granted America this right and free passage through Spanish territory on the Mississippi had expired. [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). The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 5957. (Louisiana Shaping) The American representatives were prepared to pay up to $10million for New Orleans and its environs but were dumbfounded when the vastly larger territory was offered for $15million. [53][54], 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 key to opening the western goal was securing the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Territory. This must have been a wrenching moment for Jefferson, who had long been a Francophile. Though there were 10 black slaves for every white person in Haiti, slaves occupied the bottom rung of society and were treated like expendable commodities. GOP Election Officials Walk Fine Line On Fraud, Integrity - HuffPost Jefferson soon commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to explore the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. What if France did not sell Louisiana? But though the victory eliminated slavery in Haiti, slavery increased in the country that purchased the land Haiti had spooked France into selling. 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. 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. iii. As described by Louisiana State University, France even went so far as to send convicts from debtors' prisons to the colony in 1717 in order to increase its settlement. The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 530,000,000 acres of territory in North America . Yet each also is navigating a fine line on how to address election fraud conspiracies as they gear up campaigns for U.S. Senate or governor in 2024. In his initial meeting with Napolon after taking up his Paris post in 1801, Livingston had been warned about Old World ways. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. Peace is our passion, he declared, and expressed the concern that hotheaded members of the opposition Federalist Party might force us into war. He had already instructed Livingston in early 1802 to approach Napolons foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, to try to prevent the cession of the territory to France, if this had not already occurred, or, if the deal was done, to try to purchase New Orleans. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri already had some slaveholders in the 18th and early 19th century. But when the colonial government back in St. Domingue refused to recognize the law, the groundwork was laid for violence and revolt. 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. [47] However by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. His strategy was to use Louisiana to supply the flour, salted meat, timber, and other resources necessary to support his troops on the island colony. The Library of Congress explains how President Thomas Jefferson realized the precariousness of having France as a neighbor. i. France was promised control over Canada. Why did france sell louisiana? - Alexa Answers "Napoleon, Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase. 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. In financial straits at the time, Monroe sold his china and furniture to raise travel funds, asked a neighbor to manage his properties, and sailed for France on March 8, 1803, with Jeffersons parting admonition ringing in his ears: The future destinies of this republic depended on his success. In fact, Talleyrand was intruding on a deal that Napolon had assigned to the French finance minister, Franois de Barb-Marbois. It took until 1820 for them to agree on theMissouri Compromise, which drew an imaginary line across the new territory that separated free and slave areas. So many slaves died of yellow feverand ill treatment that the entire slave population turned overevery 20 years, and slaves were held in subjugation through a strict caste system. For more than a century after La Salle took possession of it, the Louisiana Territory, with its scattered French, Spanish, Acadian and German settlements, along with those of Native Americans and American-born frontiersmen, was traded among European royalty at their whim. [3] The western borders of the purchase were later settled by the 1819 AdamsOns Treaty with Spain, while the northern borders of the purchase were adjusted by the Treaty of 1818 with Britain. Aside from the obvious drive for conquest by Napoleon, he knew that when war started between the two countries, Britain would attempt to take Louisiana. [5], Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The purchase included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, including the entirety of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; large portions of North Dakota and South Dakota; the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; the portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; the northeastern section of New Mexico; northern portions of Texas; New Orleans and the portions of the present state of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River; and small portions of land within Alberta and Saskatchewan. This success stuck in Napoleon's craw. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Reports of the retrocession caused considerable unease in the United States. Everybody who has taken grade-school history knows the story. Napoleon saw in the sale of Louisiana something he needed more than anything else cold, hard cash. The crunch came for Jefferson in October 1802. [39] New Orleans was the administrative capital of the Orleans Territory, and St. Louis was the capital of the Louisiana Territory. And the price, $15 million, or about four cents an acre, was a breathtaking bargain. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barb-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15million,[13] which averages to less than three cents per acre (7/ha). But the focal point of the celebrations is Louisiana itself. ii. By any measure, it was one of the most colossal land transactions in history, involving an area larger than todays France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the British Isles combined. This could weaken Britain's war effort against France and give Napoleon victory. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States. According to Slavery and Remembrance, the French imported nearly 800,000 enslaved Africans to the colony for brutal plantation work in what was one of the most violent slavery systems in the Americas. At the time, Britain and France were at war in Europe, and if France had not sold Louisiana that war would most likely have spread to North America. It would have seemed unthinkable for France to cede any of its colonial territories before 1791. Not all Americans agreed, however. 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. Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves. Napoleon's brothers, Lucien and Joseph, objected, thinking it a black mark on France's reputation and glory. 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. When it came to profit and geopolitical importance, Napoleon was far more interested in the Caribbean. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. The bank then turned over ownership of the Louisiana Territory to the United States in return for bonds, which were repaid over 15 years at 6 percent interest, making the final purchase price around $27 million. He could not or did not see the value in sending troops to defend worthless Louisiana, not with Saint-Domingue out of the equation. He planned on using that money to build a better army and navy. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. 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. Advertising Notice This made it difficult, when compared to Britain, to obtain the necessary money to wage large-scale wars. All Rights Reserved. Why did France sell Louisiana? Behind the scenes, he plotted to take the island back over and reinstitute slavery. [34] The United States Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to seven on October 20. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states' elections as fair and secure. 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." By doubling the size of the U.S., the purchase added vast swaths of territory that, pro-slavery advocates argued, should be filled with slaves. 3 Reply frenchchevalierblanc 5 yr. ago France had lost Louisiana in the 1760s to Spain. 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]. The soldiers there were untrained and undisciplined, he lamented, and the whole colony was not worth a straw at the present time. Concluding that the area was valueless, Louis XV gave the territory to his Bourbon cousin Charles III of Spain in 1763. Even though Europeans had ostensibly laid claim to Louisiana for centuries, it remained largely undeveloped, with few wanting to move there. French policy makers had felt for some time that Frances possessions in the Antilles would inevitably be contaminated by Americas idea of freedom and would eventually take their own independence. Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. He took possession of the whole Mississippi River basin, he avowed, in the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by Grace of God king of France and Navarre, 14th of that name. And it was in honor of Louis XIV that he named the land Louisiana. Slavery was now legal in Missouri, and the new state added pro-slave members to Congress. Thomas Jeffersonand his cabinet, themselves terrified of a French presence so close to the United States, used this conundrum as an opening. 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. What did the French call the Louisiana Territory? - 2023 Louis. What Napoleon needed was a way to divest himself of the territory while at the same time preventing it from falling into British hands. [1][2], Domestic opposition and constitutionality, Formal transfers and initial organization. Having arrived in New Orleans from Paris with his wife and three daughters just nine months earlier, in March 1803, the cultivated, worldly French functionary had expected to reign for six or eight years as colonial prefect over the vast territory of Louisiana, which was to be Frances North American empire. (Livingston) Napoleon intended to gain money by selling Louisiana. [33][35], 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.[36]. Why did France sell Louisiana? The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. When Monroe and Livingston were offered the opportunity to buy the entire territory, they could not help but be excited. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market. Jeffersons concern was more than commercial. dollar. French historians point out that Napolon had several reasons for this decision. 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 . France wanted to sell the Louisiana Territory to raise funds for Napoleon Bonaparte's war effortsin Europe and to cut its losses in the Americas after losing its colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). [48], A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. The split-screen messaging of Ohio's . A.to fund its European wars B.to create a North American empire C.to fund its war against Haitian revolutionaries . . 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. As for the ever-succinct Thomas Jefferson, he wasted little time on rhetoric. U.S. officials feared that France, resurgent under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, would soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico. Feb 14, 2023 - France sold the Louisiana Territory in 1803 because it was ruled by Napoleon and needed money in order to fight the British. All four started from the Mississippi River. SIGNED Roughneck Daddy: A Memoir by Donna F. Orchard, Paperback - eBay Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory? A.to fund its Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. Louisiana Purchase of 1803 | Napoleon Bonaparte of France By early April, 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte had had a change of mind and decided to sell the entire Louisiana Territory. France had surrendered its North American possessions at the end of the French and Indian War. According to the Library of Congress, Napoleon did not have enough troops to occupy Louisiana while simultaneously subduing Saint-Domingue. [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. Erin Blakemore is a journalist from Boulder, Colorado. pp. 2), which is just what Jefferson did. 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. One man is everything.. [17] The signers were Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Franois Barb-Marbois. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. They approached the French with the offer to buy New Orleans, a port city of vital significance to American trade that they worried about France owning. What were some of the benefits of the Louisiana Purchase quizlet Pages 70 - 98 - Brainly To France, it was a backwater sort of like owning Mediterranean Avenue in Monopoly. In a letter to U.S. minister to France Robert Livingston, President Thomas Jefferson stated, The day that France takes possession of New Orleanswe must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.. 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. Why did France sell Louisiana ? - French Glimpses 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. In 1799, he had seized power in a coup d'tat in France and wanted to restore French glory in the Americas. When Joseph continued to object, Napoleon shouted, "You are insolent!" Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. The entire economy of Americas Western territories was in jeopardy. Terms of Use [51] 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. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Her book, The Heroine's Bookshelf (Harper), won the Colorado Book Award for nonfiction. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. . Then, too, Napolon was gearing up for another campaign against Britain and needed funds for that. According to the University of Kentucky, slaves outnumbered free people at least 10 to 1. The prospect had been all the more pleasing because the territorys capital, New Orleans, he had noted with approval, was a city with a great deal of social life, elegance and goodbreeding. He also had liked the fact that the city had all sorts of mastersdancing, music, art, and fencing, and that even though there were no book shops or libraries, books could be ordered from France. 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. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. [24], The opposition of New England Federalists to the Louisiana Purchase was primarily economic self-interest, not any legitimate concern over constitutionality or whether France indeed owned Louisiana or was required to sell it back to Spain should it desire to dispose of the territory.

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