What was the size of the Louisiana Purchase?
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,...
How much did it cost to settle Louisiana?
The total cost of all subsequent treaties and financial settlements over the land has been estimated to be around 2.6 billion dollars. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762.
What happened to the Louisiana Territory after the Louisiana Purchase?
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.
How big did the Louisiana Purchase happen?
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.
Was the Louisiana purchase 15 million?
In 1803 the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory--828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River. The lands acquired stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border.
How long did it take to pay off the Louisiana Purchase?
Even that low price was too steep for the United States. It did not finish repaying the loan until 1823, by which time the total cost for the Louisiana Purchase had risen to over $23 million.
Was the Louisiana Purchase the largest land purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 is another U.S. acquisition that's considered to be one of the largest land deals ever. With a purchase price of just $15 million, the U.S. added some 13 states' worth of territories at less than three cents per acre.
How much is Louisiana Purchase worth today?
The $15 million—the equivalent of about $342 million in modern dollars, and long viewed as one of the best bargains of all time—technically didn't purchase the land itself.
How much would the Louisiana Purchase cost in 2022?
Value of $15,000,000 from 1803 to 2022 This means that today's prices are 26.22 times higher than average prices since 1803, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index.
Why did Napoleon sell the Louisiana Territory?
Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana.
Who sold the Louisiana Purchase?
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.
What are 5 facts about the Louisiana Purchase?
10 Interesting Facts About The Louisiana Purchase of 1803#1 The Louisiana territory was named in honor of King Louis XIV of France. ... #2 Napoleon wanted to use Louisiana to establish a large colonial empire in the Americas. ... #3 The United States was considering going to war over the Louisiana territory.More items...•
What is the largest land purchase in United States history?
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.
Who owns the biggest ranch in the US?
John Malone — 2.2 million acres John Malone, who has been nicknamed the "Cable Cowboy" for his telecommunications ventures, is the single largest landowner in the United States with 2.2 million acres of land.
How much Alaska sold to us today's money?
After an all-night negotiating session, the treaty was signed at 4am on March 30th, 1867. The agreed price was $7.2 million, equivalent to around $120 million today, which works out at about two cents an acre.
How much did the Louisiana Purchase cost per acre?
approximately four cents an acreIntroduction. The Louisiana Purchase is considered the greatest real estate deal in history. The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France at a price of $15 million, or approximately four cents an acre. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed in Paris on April 30, 1803.
How did the US pay the French the total amount owed?
How did the U.S. pay the French the total amount owed? 3 million dollars in gold and the rest in coin and paper money.
Why did Napoleon sell Louisiana?
Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana.
Who sold Louisiana to the US in 1803?
FranceIn this transaction with France, signed on April 30, 1803, the United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. For roughly 4 cents an acre, the United States doubled its size, expanding the nation westward.
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of imperial rights to the western half of the Mississippi River basin from France by the United States in 1...
What was the impact of the Louisiana Purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase eventually doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a...
Where was the Louisiana Purchase signed?
The Louisiana Purchase was signed in Paris, France, by Robert Livingston and James Monroe on May 2, 1803, but the treaty was antedated to April 30.
Was the Louisiana Purchase constitutional?
Though it was not immediately apparent to constructionists such as U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase was ultimately determine...
How did the Louisiana Purchase affect Native American peoples?
The Louisiana Purchase signified the United States’ acquisition of imperial rights to land that was still largely occupied by Native American peopl...
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase signified the United States ’ acquisition of imperial rights to land that was still largely occupied by Native American peoples, and it began a treaty process with those peoples that lasted over 150 years.
How did the Louisiana Purchase affect the United States?
The Louisiana Purchase eventually 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.
Why did Napoleon want to sell Louisiana?
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 Jefferson’s 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 Franƈois, marquis de Barbé-Marbois, minister for the treasury, acting for Napoleon—moved swiftly to a conclusion.
What was the Louisiana Territory?
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. Louisiana area in the early 18th century.
What was the question before the United States could establish fixed boundaries to Louisiana?
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.
How much did the United States pay for Louisiana?
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.
What was the largest land deal in U.S. history?
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. See all videos for this article. 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.
Who did the United States buy Louisiana from?
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.
What was the eastern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase?
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.
What did Southerners fear about the French invasion of Louisiana?
Southerners feared that Napoleon would free all the slaves in Louisiana, which could trigger slave uprisings elsewhere. Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with the United Kingdom, although relations were uneasy in that direction. 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 with the authorization to purchase New Orleans.
What states did the United States buy from France?
Canada. Alberta. Saskatchewan. The Louisiana Purchase ( French: Vente de la Louisiane 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803.
Why did Jefferson send James Monroe to Paris?
Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. 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.
Which country claimed Louisiana as a part of the Mississippi River?
The U.S. claimed that Louisiana included the entire western portion of the Mississippi River drainage basin to the crest of the Rocky Mountains and land extending to the Rio Grande and West Florida. Spain insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis. The dispute was ultimately resolved by the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, with the United States gaining most of what it had claimed in the west.
When did France give New Orleans its sovereignty?
Flag raising in the Place d'Armes of New Orleans, marking the transfer of sovereignty over French Louisiana to the United States, December 20, 1803, as depicted by Thure de Thulstrup. France turned over New Orleans, the historic colonial capital, on December 20, 1803, at the Cabildo, ...
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase. 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, ...
How many square miles did the Louisiana Purchase Treaty cover?
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 ...
How much did Monroe and Livingston buy Louisiana?
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.
What was Jefferson's vision of obtaining territory from Spain?
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, ...
What was Monroe's charge?
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, ...
Which party called for war and advocated secession by the western territories in order to seize control of the lower Mississippi?
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.
When did the Spanish move Louisiana?
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.
What were the borders of the Louisiana Purchase?
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.
How much did Napoleon sell Louisiana for?
In 1803, Napoleon offered to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States for $15 million. from the National Atlas of the United States.
What was the largest land purchase ever made by the United States?
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 Thomas Jefferson want to buy New Orleans?
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 .
Why did Napoleon not mind selling the land to the United States?
Napoleon didn't mind selling the land to the United States because he thought it would hurt his enemy England. The original price of $15 million worked out to around 3 cents an acre. Activities.
Which expedition explored the Great Plains and into Colorado?
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. Interesting Facts about the Louisiana Purchase.
Why did the United States expand?
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 the Louisiana Purchase cost?
The Louisiana Purchase was an incredible deal for the United States, the final cost totaling less than five cents per acre at $15 million (about $283 million in today's dollars).
When did France buy Louisiana?
our editorial process. Colin Stief. Updated December 16, 2020. On April 30, 1803 the nation of France sold 828,000 square miles (2,144,510 square km) of land west of the Mississippi River to the young United States of America in a treaty commonly known as the Louisiana Purchase.
How far did Lewis and Clark travel?
The Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Louisiana Purchase. Traveling 8,000 miles (12,800 km), the expedition gathered huge amounts of information about the landscapes, flora (plants), fauna (animals), resources, and people (mostly Indigenous peoples) it encountered across the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase.
How many plants did Lewis and Clark have?
In total, the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition described 180 plants and 125 animals that were unknown to scientists at the time. The expedition also led to the acquisition of the Oregon Territory, making the west further accessible to the pioneers coming from the east.
What did the Louisiana Purchase offer?
The Louisiana Purchase offered America what Indigenous peoples had known about for years: a variety of natural formations (waterfalls, mountains, plains, wetlands, among many others) covered by a wide array of wildlife and natural resources. Cite this Article.
What states were included in the Louisiana Purchase?
Present states that were included in part or whole of the Louisiana Purchase were: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, ...
What did the French report to Napoleon?
French officials in the United States reported to Napoleon on the country's quickly increasing population. This highlighted the difficulty France might have in holding back the western frontier of American pioneers.
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase remains the single largest land acquisition in U.S. history. It opened up the Great Plains and the Midwest to settlement and agricultural production, and was at the center of the events which led to the Civil War because of the desire to extend slavery into the new territories. It was also the scene of conflicts with Native Americans and their forcible removal. Combined with the addition of Spanish Florida in 1819, Texas in 1845, Oregon in 1846, the Mexican Cession in 1848, and the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the Continental U.S. boundaries were finalized. It wasn’t until 1959 that the U.S. annexed more territory to become the states of Alaska and Hawaii.
What was the purpose of the acquisition of Louisiana?
At the heart of this struggle was the navigation rights to the Mississippi River which could be navigated from the Gulf of Mexico nearly to Canada to conduct trade over half of the present U.S. territory. Whoever controlled the river and access to New Orleans commanded a financial and trade monopoly which could strangle the fledgling U.S. if it did not seek favorable terms with France and Spain.
What was Napoleon's goal in 1802?
His ambition was to subdue all of Europe for France, and to reclaim his American colony in Louisiana. In 1802 Bonaparte forced Spain to return Louisiana to France in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. Bonaparte’s purpose was to build up a French Army to send to Louisiana to defend his “New France” from British and U.S. attacks. At roughly the same time, a slave revolt broke out in the French held island of Haiti. Bonaparte sent troops there to stop the rebellion and he had hoped to use Haiti as a staging point for moving troops to Louisiana. However, the French failed the territory was lost, and many more soldiers died of Yellow Fever, which left Bonaparte’s army decimated and unable to continue to the U.S.
What did the Louisiana Purchase do?
While it’s often portrayed as the ultimate bargain for a young nation-in-the-making, the Louisiana Purchase did much more than simply double the size of the country and affirm the United States’ role as a growing world power.
What does knowing the scale of the Louisiana Purchase tell us?
Knowing the scale of the Louisiana Purchase tells us the what of the matter, but does not touch on the how or why.
What was Napoleon's plan to colonize?
Napoleon had plans to colonize and exploit the island of Hispaniola (home today to Haiti in the west and the Dominican Republic in the east), and transform the restored territory of Louisiana into a “breadbasket” for the island’s cocoa, indigo, cotton, sugar, and cocoa production—and, by extension, a valuable source of revenue for French empire.
How much land was purchased in 1803?
Covering a staggering 530,000,000 acres (820,000 square miles, or slightly more than 2,144,510 square kilometers), the Louisiana Purchase was completed in 1803 for $15,000,000, the equivalent of around $340 million today based on inflation. That breaks down to about $0.03 an acre for enough land to cover the entirety of Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and Poland, with enough room left over for most of Greece.
What were the effects of the Westward Expansion?
Modern democracy, free-market capitalism, and the decidedly American approach of spreading both as far and wide as possible , were all secondary effects of the westward expansion fed by the Purchase. They continue to drive our evolving global economy and business climate today.
How much is an acre worth?
However, based on a national average of $12,000 an acre in a 2015 study conducted by economist William D. Larson, we can approximate the value at $6.36 trillion. (530,000,000 x $12,000 = 6,360,000,000,000).
How many states did the remaining land provide?
The remaining land was sufficient to provide the majority of the land for five other states as well:
How much did the Louisiana Purchase cost?
The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States and the cost of about four cents an acre was a breathtaking bargain. (The Granger Collection, New York)
What did the Americans cry at the Louisiana Purchase?
Americans cried “Huzzah!” and waved their hats, while French and Spanish residents sulked in glum silence. Laussat, standing on the balcony of the town hall, burst into tears. The Louisiana Purchase, made 200 years ago this month, nearly doubled the size of the United States.
What did the French think of Louisiana?
The French were fascinated by America—which they often symbolized in paintings and drawings as a befeathered Noble Savage standing beside an alligator —but they could not decide whether it was a new Eden or, as the naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon declared, a primitive place fit only for degenerate life-forms. But the official view was summed up by Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac, whom Louis XIV named governor of the territory in 1710: “The people are aheap of the dregs of Canada,” he sniffed in a 42-page report to the king written soon after he arrived. 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. But in 1800, the region again changed hands, when Napoléon negotiated the clandestine Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spain’s Charles IV. The treaty called for the return of the vast territory to France in exchange for the small kingdom of Etruria in northern Italy, which Charles wanted for his daughter Louisetta.
How long did Pierre Clément de Laussat reign?
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 ...
How much did Monroe and Livingston propose?
On April 15, Monroe and Livingston proposed $8 million.
What was Louis the Great's name?
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.
Why was it important for the port of New Orleans to remain open and free for American commerce?
Livingston, it was crucial that the port of New Orleans remain open and free for American commerce, particularly the goods coming down the Mississippi River. “There is on the globe one single spot,” Jefferson wrote, “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.” Jefferson’s concern was more than commercial. “He had a vision of America as an empire of liberty,” says Douglas Brinkley. “And he saw the Mississippi River not as the western edge of the country, but as the great spine that would hold the continent together.”
How many acres were cessions in the Louisiana Purchase?
It tracks 222 Indian cessions within the Louisiana Territory. Made by treaties, agreements, and statutes between 1804 and 1970, these cessions covered 576 million acres, ranging from a Quapaw tract the size of North Carolina sold in 1818 to a parcel smaller than Central Park seized from the Santee Sioux to build a dam in 1958.
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
To cherish the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 as one of history’s great real estate deals requires buying into a myth. The acquisition of France’s pre-emption rights in 1803 was a down payment on a continental empire that ran through Indian country.
How many acres were cessions made?
Made by treaties, agreements, and statutes between 1804 and 1970, these cessions covered 576 million acres, ranging from a Quapaw tract the size of North Carolina sold in 1818 to a parcel smaller than Central Park seized from the Santee Sioux to build a dam in 1958.
What was the first Indian cession in Louisiana?
The first Indian cession within the Louisiana Territory established the mold. In November 1804, a delegation of Sac and Fox Indians came to St. Louis to try to prevent U.S. retaliation for the murder of three squatters on Sac and Fox land in modern-day Missouri.
Why did the Sioux reject the Supreme Court's decision?
Because these awards were arrived at after long delays, and typically excluded interest or any consideration of value not dictated by markets, they ultimately served more to quiet claims than deliver justice. This is why the Sioux rejected the most famous award, a 1980 Supreme Court judgment for $106 million for the taking of the Black Hills after nearly 60 years of litigation. While the court admitted that the 1876 agreement had been coerced with threats of starvation (and that it violated an earlier treaty from 1868), its decision left no room for what the Sioux actually wanted. As the Dakota novelist Elizabeth Cook-Lynn explained, the court added insult to injury by sanctioning a brazen theft, then adding, “we will now pay you X-millions of dollars, and the Sioux have said, ‘No, we want to talk about return of stolen lands.’ ” Nearly 30 years later, the judgment remains uncollected.
How much land was ceded to the Pawnees of Oklahoma?
Just one lonely line item for Indian land ceded in the Missouri River Valley survives on the federal budget: $30,000 a year to the Pawnees of Oklahoma for 9,878,000 acres of what’s now Nebraska and South Dakota, ceded in 1857.
What was the problem with the textbook version of the Louisiana Purchase?
The trouble with the textbook version of the Louisiana Purchase lies with its easy reduction to a real estate transaction. Europeans had only colonized a tiny fraction of the territory by 1803. Over those areas where they had established control, France sold the United States the right to tax and govern.
Overview
The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane, lit. 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi (2,140,000 km ; 530,000,000 acres). However…
Background
Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the French colony of Louisiana became a pawn for European political intrigue. The colony was the most substantial presence of France's overseas empire, with other possessions consisting of a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontai…
Negotiation
While the transfer of the territory by Spain back to France in 1800 went largely unnoticed, fear of an eventual French invasion spread across America when, in 1801, Napoleon sent a military force to secure New Orleans. Southerners feared that Napoleon would free all the slaves in Louisiana, which could trigger slave uprisings elsewhere. Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought t…
Domestic opposition and constitutionality
After Monroe and Livingston had returned from France with news of the purchase, an official announcement of the purchase was made on July 4, 1803. This gave Jefferson and his cabinet until October, when the treaty had to be ratified, to discuss the constitutionality of the purchase. Jefferson considered a constitutional amendment to justify the purchase; however, his cabinet convin…
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.
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 following the failure of Bird, Savage & Bird. 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 negotiation…
Boundaries
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.
Slavery
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 transatlantic 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-da…
Overview
Origin
- 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 …
Aftermath
- 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 paci…
Prelude
- 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 Lo…
Quotes
- 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
Issues
- 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 n…
Impact
- 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.