Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Territory, purchased from France in 1803, was the largest peaceful acquisition of territory in US history. But some of you may remember that after the Revolutionary War, Spain gained control over Louisiana. How, then, did we buy Louisiana from France?

• The story begins in April 1682,when the French explorer Robert de la Salle erected a cross near the mouth of the Mississippi and declared that France had taken possession of the entire Mississippi River basin. He named the area Louisiana in honor of Louis XI.
• In 1718, another French explorer founded a settlement and named it la Nouvelle Orleans for Philippe, Duke of Orleans and Regent of France. This port city quickly grew into a multicultural town with a thriving economy based on agricultural imports.
• In 1763 after the French and Indian War, Louis XV ceded Louisiana to his cousin Charles III of Spain.
• In 1800, Napoleon secretly traded land with the Spanish. In the Treaty of San Ildefonso, Louisiana was returned to France in exchange for the small kingdom of Etruria in northern Italy which the Spanish King Charles IV wanted for his daughter. Keeping the port of New Orleans open and free for American commerce was crucial to the economic success of the U.S.
• Napolean, however, was putting together a plan for creating a French empire in North America. Key to that plan was Haiti.
  • From 1791 - 1804, slaves in Haiti waged a revolution against their French colonial rulers. As such, it was: the first racial war that successfully overthrew a European colonial power, the first instance of mass emancipation by a slave society, and the first creation of a black republic in the Americas.
  • The successful revolution made the Louisiana Territory virtually useless to France, since its importance had been in supplying foodstuffs to feed the hundreds of thousands of French slaves in the Caribbean.
• After the suspension of trade on the Mississippi, Jefferson sent James Madison to Napoleon to offer $2 million for New Orleans. Weary from his battle in Haiti, Napoleon offered to sell all the Louisiana territory for $15.

The consequences of the purchase are important to note:

• The Haitian Revolution and its overthrow of slavery made the Louisiana Purchase possible for the US; in turn, the acquisition made the westward extension of slavery in the US possible.
• It almost doubled the size of the U.S.
• It opened huge forests and seemingly endless lands for grazing and farming, thus paving the way to make America immensely wealth
• It was a bargain - at $15 million we paid about 4 cents an acre.
• All or parts of 15 Western states would eventually be carved out of the territory.