The Greatest Land Deal

in the History of the United States

The Louisiana Purchase

Where Was the Original Louisiana Territory?

Who Claimed the Louisiana Territory?

• Native Americans

• French

• British

• Spanish

• Americans

Shape Shifting

France held a claim for 80 years.

British

• 1763 — In the Treaty of Paris which concluded the French and Indian War, major land exchanges were made. All of Louisiana east of the Mississippi River - except the port city of New Orleans - was given to Britain.

• New Orleans and all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River was given to Spain.

Mississippi River

New Orleans

SPANISHWEST

BRITISHEAST

LOUISIANA.

Spanish

1783 — Following the American War of Independence, Britain ceded its old Louisiana territory east of the Mississippi River to the United States and gave Florida back to Spain.

Mississippi R.

New Orleansand

Florida

U.S.

West of the Mississippi

River

East of the Mississippi River

SPANISH

Shape Shifting

Spain held a claim for 38 years.

Why Did Napoleon Want Louisiana?

• Around 1800, French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had a vision of a renewed western empire for France.

• Control over the vast Louisiana Territory would halt the westward expansion of the young United States and would supply French colonies in the West Indies with the goods they needed.

Napoleon’s Scheme

• His scheme includes the recapture of Louisiana from a very weak Spain.

• Napoleon took a break from his conquests in Europe to send French troops to the West Indies.

I LOVE power!

Secretly…the Spanish king and Napoleon signed a treaty - Spain gave France back all of Louisiana, including New Orleans, on condition that it not be sold or given to any other country.

Shape Shifting

France held a claim for 3 years.

Thomas Jefferson

Meanwhile….back in the U.S.A.

1801• When Thomas Jefferson

became president in 1801, two out of every three Americans lived within fifty miles of the Atlantic Ocean.

• Only four crude roads crossed the Allegheny Mountains.

• The U.S. western boundary ended on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River.

• Florida was owned and ruled by Spain.

Ohio River

Allegheny Mountains

Spanish Florida

Mississippi River

Western U.S. Territories

The half-million Americans (one out of 10) who already lived west of the Appalachian Mountains felt they had found their own “national” interests.

APPALACHIAN MTS.

Out West, we frontiersmen have our own

agenda.

Ha! Ha!In the

East, we have all the good

port cities

Western U.S. Territories Many people along

the Mississippi River viewed themselves as the seeds of an independent nation that would tap into the world marketplace, not by going east to the Atlantic seaboard, but by following the Ohio and Mississippi river system down to the Gulf of Mexico.

Jefferson’s Plan• Jefferson knew the

inhabitants of this region posed a risk of secession from the United States. After all, the nation, only 18 years old, was born of rebellion.

• He was determined to

obtain the vital trading port of New Orleans for the United States, in part to prevent the West from breaking away.

Port of New Orleans (1870)

The Secret is Discovered• 1801 — President Thomas

Jefferson was shocked when he learned about the secret treaty between France and Spain.

• Considering strong French

control over New Orleans to be a serious threat, he instructed his Minister to France in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, to try to buy New Orleans and Florida or at least western Florida.

Jefferson just wants

a little port.

Robert Livingston, U.S. Minister to France

Jefferson Stands Up to Napoleon• Also, Jefferson let it be

known that the U.S would ally itself with England and fight France if the French started a war on the continent.

• The French declined to sell New Orleans or western Florida.

I weel have it all!!

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

Toussaint L’Overture

Two years later…in 1803 the French army off the coast of Florida in the West Indies was having

some problems.

Haiti

Florida The

West

Indies

The Best-Laid Plans…• The remaining French

troops were forced to return to France, defeated, thus preventing them from reaching their ultimate destination – Louisiana –and from being able to defend it.

• As Napoleon's New World empire disintegrated, the loss of French Haiti made Louisiana unnecessary.

I hate mosquitoes!

What Jefferson Wanted

I just want a little port near the Mississippi River.

Jefferson Persists• President Jefferson,

learning that the defeated French might be willing to consider selling some land after all, sent Monroe to Paris with instructions from Secretary of State James Madison to buy a small piece of land.

• Congress appropriated $2 million.

You can count on

me to secure

the deal, Mr.

President.

James Monroe, Minister to Spain and

France

The French Reply

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the French Minister of Foreign Relations, declined the offer.

$2 million?

No deal!

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

The BIG Surprise!

Needing money to continue his military campaigns elsewhere in the world, Napoleon changed his mind and decided to offer to sell ALL of Louisiana (including New Orleans) to the United States.

You may have zee

whole territory. I’m going

home.

Let’s Make A Deal• Minister Robert

Livingston was prepared to offer only $2 million for a port such as New Orleans.

• Talleyrand says Louisiana would be worthless to France without the port city, and asks Livingston to make an offer.

Louisiana Purchase negotiations

Jefferson Acts Quickly

• Although there were no provisions in the Constitution for buying territories, Jefferson - a Democratic-Republican (formerly of the Anti-Federalists) - had Congress appropriate $10 million.

• The Federalist Party was very unhappy.

I will stretch my

presidential power ‘till it

cracks!

President Thomas Jefferson

The Final Offer

How about $15 million

for ALL of it?

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the

French Minister of Foreign Relations

Robert Livingston, Minister to France

Let’s see James,

Congress only

approved $10

million.

James Monroe, Minister to France

and Spain

A Waste of Money?• Amazed by the offer,

Jefferson accepted and rushed the treaty through Congress, in spite of doubts about its constitutionality.

• Federalists attacked the purchase not only as a deliberate use of executive power, but as a waste of money.

• Nevertheless, the treaty was signed.

Louisiana Purchase Treaty

What Jefferson Got• April 30, 1803 - the United

States negotiated with France for the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, including the port of New Orleans for $15 million.

• Upon taking possession of the Louisiana territory on December 31,1803, America doubled in size, making it one of the largest nations in the world.

$15,000,000

A Sweet Deal!

The sale included over 600 million acres at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre in what today is a large part of the land area of 13 states between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Without Shedding A Single Drop of Blood!

• For President Thomas Jefferson it was a diplomatic and political triumph.

• The purchase of the

Louisiana Territory ended the threat of war with France and opened up the land west of the Mississippi to American settlement.

The Transfer of Louisiana in St. Louis, 1804.

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