A Brief Note On The Louisiana Territory Impacted The United States Of Land All Across North America

The Louisiana Purchase happened in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French for fifteen million dollars. The Louisiana Territory extended from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Canadian border in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. I believe that there were just as many disadvantages to the Louisiana Purchase for President Thomas Jefferson as there were advantages. The advantages were that the purchase removed France from North America, doubled the size of America, allowed the United states to acquire more fertile land, and gain control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans. The disadvantages were that America had to defend a country that was doubled in size, they had to supervise how Americans settled the new land, deal with more Native Americans, and the purchase was against Jefferson's beliefs.

In April 1803, the negotiation was concluded and the entire region of Louisiana was ceded to the United States for the sum of $11,250,000 dollars (LeFeber 182). The American negotiators seized the favorable circumstances to urge the claims of American merchants on the French government for $3,750,00. This important acquisition more than doubled the territory of the United States. The great majority of the nation received the treaty with jubilation, but there were some particularly in the eastern States that disclaimed strenuously against it. They saw in the great enlargement of our territory and was nogthing more thatn a great waste, a wilderness unpeopled with any beings except wolves and wandering Indians. We are to give money of which we have too little for land of which we already have too much (LeFeber 183).

The United States was interested in the purchase of Louisiana for a number of reasons; to protect the citizens’ of the United States right to trade through the Port of New Orleans, to ensure that the British did not establish a new colony in the new land, and to allow the United States’ farmers and merchants to move westward. In 1682, the French discovered a large piece of land in North America which they named Louisiana after their king, King Louis XVI. Following the French and Indian War, King Louis XVI thought this land was a useless piece of uncharted wilderness. The king decided to give this enormous section of land to his cousin, King Charles III of Spain as a “reward” for Spain’s support

The Louisiana Purchase is a large amount of land, west of the Mississippi River, which was purchased from France by the United States in 1803. The purchase yielded about 828,000 square miles of land. The United States’ acquisition of the land has doubled the size of the country, helping the nation in the progress of expanding westward. There was a dispute between the French and the Spanish over the land that they claimed as theirs. The Spanish were the first one to set foot in America.

Has it ever occured to you how different the United States would be if Jeffferson never purchased the Louisiana Territory? Do you ever imagine the country separated into pieces and not one whole? Was it really important? In 1803 president Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte for $15,000,000. The Louisiana Purchase, which was 828,000 square miles included present day Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Some parts of Minnesota, North & South Dakora, Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Louisiana, and parts of Canada which are now the provinces of Alberta & Saskatchewan. This doubled the size of the United States, and because they had no clue what was on this new land, The president sent Meriwether Lewis & William Clark to go on an expedition that lasted two years.

goods. Second, it more than doubled the size of the United States. With this huge

The purchasing of the Louisiana territory was not as easy of a business transaction as one might think. It was a very rushed, stressful process that caused President Thomas Jefferson a considerable amount of mental and emotional anguish. The problem that was the Louisiana purchase can be broken into three parts: Jefferson’s dilemma, Jefferson’s decision, and the consequences. The Louisiana Purchase was one of the most influential events in American history because it helped not only double the size of the US in the early 1800s, but also helped the United States’ economy prosper. Some events cannot be fully measured at the time of their occurrence. It requires decades, even centuries, to understand their full significance. Next to winning

The Louisiana Purchase was one of the most important parts of the United States’ Westward Expansion because it nearly doubled the size of the country. Before the purchase, Napoleon was looking to rebuild an empire in North America but a slave revolt in Saint Domingue led by Toussaint LOuverture in Saint Domingue left Napoleon deciding on whether to suppress the rebellion or establish an empire in the Americas. Napoleon ended up trying to control Saint Domingue because he thought it would be too difficult to control Louisiana with American territory blocking the way, and he rendered it useless and sold it to the United States. With the Louisiana Purchase came some controversy as the Federalists thought it was against the Constitution to acquire any territory, but Jefferson responded by saying he had the power to make treaties, and he believed he did just that. As the United States acquired Louisiana, they had an opportunity to gain more land and got closer to countries like Mexico and increased their border length with Canada.

At one time this land had been under the control of Spain following the French and Indian war, but France ceded the land to Spain for payment of debts for the war. For approximately thirty years Spain did very little to develop Louisiana. In 1801 Spain signed a secret treaty to return the Louisiana Territory back to France, in exchange for Napoleon’s promise to give the Spanish royal family rule over Tuscany. For reasons of his own, Napoleon, the leader of France, in 1803 offered to sell the land to the United States of America. The leaders of our country were concerned that the

P2 The Louisiana Purchase was about the U.S buying a large piece of land from France. But before the purchase many things happened. In 1802 Spanish officials at new orleans said Americans could no longer deposit, or unload and store, their goods at New Orleans before shipping them out to other countries. French leader Napoleon Bonaparte needed money so decided to make a decision. Napoleon decided to sell to the Americans. The French accepted a bid of 15 million for

The Louisiana Purchase, including the Mississippi river and west, was purchased by the United States in 1803. The U.S. paid around four cents an acre, making the exchange the biggest land acquisition in its history. The land doubles the size of the United States making them a powerhouse and expedited westward expansion. The story of the Louisiana Purchase begins with French and Spanish control; Jefferson’s need for the Port of New Orleans and ultimately the acquisition of over 800,000 square miles of lands rich with gold, silver, forestry and the mighty Mississippi River.

The Louisiana Purchase was the first and the biggest part of land that the United States had bought. France had owned the territory until Napoleon needed money to finance his wars. So he

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson was sent as the Secretary of State to negotiate with the French in regards to the city of New Orleans --it was a prime trading dock since many waterways would intersect at the port. However, when Jefferson met with Napoleon discussing the plans, the French offered him the Louisiana Purchase that spanned west of the Mississippi River for quite a miniscule price. The context behind such a deal is that the French were fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, trying to fight England; the battle was not in favor of the French, and Napoleon feared that war retributions would require the French to give the Louisiana Purchase to England without getting anything in return. The French obviously wanted to gain as much of an edge as possible in the war so they sold the Louisiana Purchase for quick, liquid money that could be devoted towards the war and the French also hoped that they would be able to buy the Louisiana Purchase back from the United States when the French are in a more stable time. Even with such an amazing deal, Jefferson had internal conflictions when purchasing the land. He believed in the policy of strict construction and felt the government was restricted to only the powers explicitly granted by the U.S. Constitution. However, the Constitution does not mention anything about the government being able to purchase land. In the end, Jefferson did buy the land, and it doubled the size of the United States.

The United States history would be different if we had not purchase the Louisiana Territory because Jefferson Louisiana Purchase had more than doubled the size of the United States and had abandoned then his philosophy of the strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. If this did not happen then the United States may have not become America and it would have happened later. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States and the cost of it. The buying of the Louisiana even before it could happen we the Americas were having issues with Spanish because they didn’t want us to ship goods into New Orleans and It got the westerns mad and they wanted to go back to war for their rights. Jefferson’s was delighted with the deal

This included the Mississippi river which gave the southern United States a trade way to the rest of the commercial United States. Thomas Jefferson was upset about the land being given to France and expressed his thoughts as Spain and France leaving the United States in a bad position. James Monroe was sent to France in 1803 to negotiate the purchase of Louisiana from France. Louisiana was sold to the United States for only 15 million and it marked the peak of Jefferson’s first term and secured his reelection almost certainly. Hamilton argued that this had nothing to do with Jefferson’s doing and it was something that was going to happen regardless of his actions going as far as to state, “...not to any wise or vigorous measures on the part of the american government.” (pg