President Thomas Jefferson had acquired purchased the Louisiana Territory almost a year earlier, for the price of about $15 million (about $342 million in 2020, adjusted for inflation).The ceremony took place in St. Louis, Missouri, earning the U.S. city its nickname "Gateway to . In order to finance his dreams of conquest, Napoleon needed money to finance his military operation, which had been growing in an arms race with Britain. There was no arguing with Napoleon, who would, after all,crown himself Emperor in 1804. 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. [33] The fledgling United States did not have $15 million in its treasury; it borrowed the sum from Great Britain, at an annual interest rate of six percent. Napoleon wanted its revenues and productivity for France restored. 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. 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). This exact scenario is what happened to Mexico with their province of Tejas during the Texan Revolution. Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned over the purchase's constitutionality. Interested in reaching out? When Napoleon rose to power in 1799, the French governments finances were in disarray due to the effects of the French Revolution. This success stuck in Napoleon's craw. Who was President at the time of the Louisiana Purchase? Pakenham was ordered to conduct the New Orleans/Mobile campaign even in the middle of the peace negotiations in late 1814. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. The great expansion of the United States achieved by the Louisiana Purchase did receive criticism, though . Pamela Martin In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte surprised U.S. negotiators with an offer to sell the Louisiana Territory for approximately 4 cents per acre. Though the strike never materialized, the United States made it clear it would act with the nations best interests in mindincluding if it came to war. The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803. Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801[9] with the authorization to purchase New Orleans. Overcoming the opposition of the Federalist Party, Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison persuaded Congress to ratify and fund the Louisiana Purchase. Brown University explains that Saint-Domingue created a tax revenue base of 1 billion livres and exported up to 170 million livres into France on an annual basis. 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. 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 Real Reason France Sold The Louisiana Territory To The United States, National Museum of American History/Wikimedia Commons, National Archives and Records Administration/Wikimedia Commons. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. Who sold the Louisiana Territory to the Jefferson? To Napoleon's line of thinking, if the United States took control of Louisiana, then it would deny Britain the opportunity of conquering it. 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. He added later, "I require money to make war on the richest nation in the world.". Who sold the Louisiana Territory to the United states? 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. He wanted Saint-Domingue and its incredibly profitable sugar and coffee plantations restored and under French control, with the old system reinstated. ", This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 06:28. 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. With the failure to retake Saint-Domingue and the inevitability of renewed war between France and Britain, Napoleon refigured his political calculus. As discussed in the Journal of Economic History, France had a historically bad reputation for credit and finance due to the upheavals of the French Revolution. 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. See chapter iii, "Treaty Ceding Louisiana to the United States" (1803 ff.). 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. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. Who sold the massive Louisiana Territory to the United States? The risk of another power taking it from a weakened Spain made a "profound reconsideration" of this policy necessary. He bought the Louisiana territory from France, which was being led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time, for 15,000,000 USD. Jefferson considered a constitutional amendment to justify the purchase; however, his cabinet convinced him otherwise. Answer and Explanation: William Marbury. The French had no active administration over the territory and there were few French settlers. This made it difficult, when compared to Britain, to obtain the necessary money to wage large-scale wars. Napoleon 6. How did Jefferson acquire Louisiana Territory? Louisiana under Spanish control fared little better. The two powers were at peace in early 1803, having signed the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, which, as explained by Britannica, ended hostilities between the two nations. [37][38], 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. [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. Napoleon sold France's Louisiana territory because he needed money to fund his wars of conquest in Europe one of the terms of the Louisiana purchase was that the U.S. had to pay the whole price up front in gold. ' Weegy: Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States because he would have a hard time managing . 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. Monroe, along with the minister to France, Robert Livingston, made the inquiry. The additional land helped lead to the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the various frontier wars and broken treaties with the Plains natives of the late 1800s. Ambassador who was sent to France to negotiate the purchase of the Louisiana Territory. But although the Americans never asked for it, Napoleon dangled the entire territory in front of them on April 11, 1803. 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. On April 12, 1803, Franois Barb-Marbois met with the Americans. All these soldiers needed to be fed, housed, and paid. Why is France sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US? In the year of 1803, the Louisiana purchase occurred. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction. 2, 1995, pp. [47] However by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2123552. Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. 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. 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? I renounce it with the greatest regret." 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? 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. While this was just a rumor, he had made up his mind to sell the territory. Lucien said that the legislative chambers of the French government would not approve it, to which Napoleon replied that he would do it without their consent. At the time of the Louisiana Purchase Europe was held under a temporary peace as a result of the 1802 Treaty of Amiens. As described by History, under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, the enslaved allied with nonwhite free people and successfully overthrew the slave order, taking control of all of Hispaniola, not just Saint-Domingue. [52] 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. In a way, this almost came to pass in the War of 1812. In the end, Barings and Hopes acquired the $11.25 million in bonds for just $9.44 million. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. Napoleon inherently knew that the peace would not last and that France needed to prepare for impending war with Great Britain once again. 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. When Napoleon rose to power he recommitted to recapture the colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) and sent tens of thousands of troops in 1802 to crush the rebellion. Browman, David L (2018). 1803 acquisition of large region of Middle America land by the U.S. from France, Domestic opposition and constitutionality, Formal transfers and initial organization. Native Americans way of life was forever changed by the unrelenting encroachment of American settlers. True False. 50721. In 1718, the French established New Orleans, and scant groups of colonists moved in. 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. The Louisiana Territory was a vast stretch of land of over 500 million acres from the Mississippi River Delta to the present-day border between Montana and Canada. In addition, the DunbarHunter Expedition (18041805) explored the Ouachita River watershed. [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. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the "preemptive" right to obtain "Indian" lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.[1][2]. 1803. They wrote an enthusiasticletter to Secretary of State James Madison: "An acquisition of so great an extent was, we well Know, not contemplated by our appointment; but we are persuaded that the Circumstances and Considerations which induced us to make it, will justify us, in the measure, to our Government and Country.". 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. 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. Britain and France renewed hostilities on May 18, 1803, shortly after the deal was finalized. 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 Knowing that war was imminent, Napoleon sensed two opportunities by selling the Louisiana territory. 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. 5057. It was the French who sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. [citation needed]. 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. 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. The following year, the District of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Louisiana. 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. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. While Napoleons reasons were valid, his decision to sell the Louisiana territory certainly came as a surprise. 22755. [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. [57] 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 remaining 60 million francs ($11.25 million) were financed through U.S. government bonds carrying 6% interest, redeemable between 1819 and 1822. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States. Napoleon saw in the sale of Louisiana something he needed more than anything else cold, hard cash. As it turns out, France, or more accurately its ruler Napoleon Bonaparte, had some good reasons for doing it. True False, The War of 1812 was between France and the United States. As tensions in Europe continued to grow, the unprofitable territory seemed to be more of a liability than asset. While Napoleon originally tried to sell the territory for $22 million, the two sides eventually agreed to a sale at $15 million. According to the University of Kentucky, slaves outnumbered free people at least 10 to 1. 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. [22] In 1804 Haiti declared its independence; but fearing a slave revolt at home, Jefferson and the rest of Congress refused to recognize the new republic, the second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade embargo against it. Ambitions ruined, the French forces admitted defeat and returned home. [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. Napoleon sold the territory to the United States for only three cents an acre. First, as mentioned before, France needed more money for the impending war and to concentrate its resources on Europe. While Napoleon had grand plans for the Louisiana territory, those dreams were far off. However, in 1800 Spain had ceded the Louisiana territory back to France as part of Napoleon's secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. PBS describes how by 1812, France had increased its army strength to 600,000 men, not to mention the thousands in the navy. [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. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the French colony of Louisiana became a pawn for European political intrigue.