Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves. In 1791, the storm broke and thousands of slaves revolted. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. Why did . [45] In 2021 dollars, the $15 million purchase price is equivalent to $336.92million. 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. But in early 1803, continuing war between France and Britain seemed unavoidable. A wily political survivor who held high offices under the French Revolution, and later under Napolons empire and the restored Bourbon monarchy, Talleyrand had spent the years 1792 to 1794 in exile in America after being denounced by the revolutionary National Convention, and had conceived a virulent contempt for Americans. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. In 1763, Louis XV gave Louisiana to his cousin, Charles III of Spain. Earlier in 1803, 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. [43] Hopes brought to the transaction experience with issuing sovereign bonds and Barings brought its American connections.[42]. The Louisiana Purchase had major consequences for the United States. The risk of another power taking it from a weakened Spain made a "profound reconsideration" of this policy necessary. In a letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote that France's repossession of the territory "is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the Atlantic and involve in it's effects their highest destinies.". Why did France decide to sell Louisiana to the U.S.? Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States. Napoleon Bonaparte used the cash to finance his war efforts, but he was finally and permanently defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Hed planned to send troops to Louisiana to take over the colony, which he had received from the Spanish through a secrettreatyin 1800, in the hopes ofusingthe territory as a trade venue for the commodities produced in Haiti. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. As told by Michigan State University, both of them were shocked when the French minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, asked how much they would pay for the entire territory. Learn more about Erin and her work at erinblakemore.com. To France, it was a backwater sort of like owning Mediterranean Avenue in Monopoly. The U.S. claimed the land as far as the Perdido River, and Spain claimed that the border of its Florida Colony remained the Mississippi River. Why did France sell Louisiana? Napoleon was eager to sellbut the purchase would end up expanding slavery in the U.S. Map showing the area covered by the Louisiana Purchase. French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle first claimed the Louisiana Territory, which he named for King Louis XIV, during a. [citation needed], In Saint-Domingue, Leclerc's forces took Louverture prisoner, but their expedition soon faltered in the face of fierce resistance and disease. 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. Recent post: Does Cu Sell Alcohol? Its believed that the failure of France to put down a slave revolution in Haiti, the impending war with Great Britain and probable British naval blockade of France combined with French economic difficulties may have prompted Napoleon to offer Louisiana for sale to the United States. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market. Jeffersons concern was more than commercial. 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. Why Did France Sell Louisiana? - CLJ [34] The United States Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to seven on October 20. What if France never sold Louisiana? Jefferson tasked James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston with purchasing New Orleans. . Napoleon informed his brothers of the sale and asked for their opinion. Many Southern slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory might inspire American-held slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. France wanted to end Louvertre's rule and reinstate slavery. What were some of the benefits of the Louisiana Purchase quizlet Feb 14, 2023 - France sold the Louisiana Territory in 1803 because it was ruled by Napoleon and needed money in order to fight the British. France wanted to sell the Louisiana Territory to raise funds for Napoleon Bonaparte's war effortsin Europe and to cut its losses in the Americas after losing its colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. The superpower had built a vast network of colonies in the Americas, capitalizing on European tastes for coffee, indigo and other commodities. Why Did France Sell the Land - The Louisiana Purchase By doubling the size of the U.S., the purchase added vast swaths of territory that, pro-slavery advocates argued, should be filled with slaves. This was coupled with the importation of enslaved Africans. 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). [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. By any measure, it was one of the most colossal land transactions in history, involving an area larger than todays France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the British Isles combined. All the way to the Pacific. 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. Laussat, standing on the balcony of the town hall, burst into tears. This success stuck in Napoleon's craw. Without that, the United States' international influence would be less, as would its influence over the development of democracies. According to the Library of Congress, Napoleon did not have enough troops to occupy Louisiana while simultaneously subduing Saint-Domingue. [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." [55], Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize four missions to explore and map the new territory. Updated: June 6, 2019 | Original: December 2, 2009. [47] However by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. U.S. officials feared that France, resurgent under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, would soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico. According to the University of Kentucky, slaves outnumbered free people at least 10 to 1. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. The press joined the fray. Who was president of the U.S. at the time of the Louisiana purchase? By the sale, Napolon hoped to create a huge country in the Western Hemisphere to serve as a counterweight to Britain and maybe make trouble for it., On April 11, when Livingston called on Talleyrand for what he thought was yet another futile attempt to deal, the foreign minister, after the de rigueur small talk, suddenly asked whether the United States would perchance wish to buy the whole of the Louisiana Territory. "[19] On July 4, 1803, the treaty was announced,[20] but the documents did not arrive in Washington, D.C. until July 14. I renounce it with the greatest regret. At roughly the same time, a slave revolt broke out in the French held island of . The Louisiana Purchase and its exploration (article) | Khan Academy (Louisiana Shaping) According to the memoirs of Franois Barb-Marbois, in what was a prophetic statement foreshadowing the American Civil War, Napoleon said, "Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. Louisiana Purchase of 1803 | Napoleon Bonaparte of France By early April, 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte had had a change of mind and decided to sell the entire Louisiana Territory. The Louisiana Purchase, made 200 years ago this month, nearly doubled the size of the United States. At this, Barb-Marbois pretended Napolon had lost interest. Louisiana Purchase (1803) - Summary, Cost & Significance All Rights Reserved. With Congress and a vociferous press calling for action, Jefferson faced the nations most serious crisis since the American Revolution. 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. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. [1][2] More recently, the total cost to the U.S. government of all subsequent treaties and financial settlements over the land has been estimated to be around 2.6 billion dollars. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. 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. Inspired by republican ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality, they pressed for their rights, and some were given the right to vote in 1790 by the French government. To Napoleon's line of thinking, if the United States took control of Louisiana, then it would deny Britain the opportunity of conquering it. At the time, Britain and France were at war in Europe, and if France had not sold Louisiana that war would most likely have spread to North America .The emergence of a vastly larger British North America might also have made it easier to confine slavery within the southern states. This week (May 2) in 1803, the United States and France formally signed the treaty that transferred the Louisiana Territory, including the port city of New Orleans, to the United States for the paltry sum of $11,250,000. His soldiers died on the island and he knew he could not establish control there. Saint-Domingue was a powder keg, ready to explode. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi out to sea. Why did France sell Louisiana : to finance the conquests. By Edmund Duncan May 31, 2022. Albany, GA (31701) Today. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory? But when French forces invaded Haiti in an attempt to restore the original order, the slave rebellion refused to budge. Just three weeks earlier, on November 30, 1803, Spanish officials had formally conveyed the colonial lands and their administration to France. As a result, while the territory of Louisiana was technically very large, it had hardly been touched by the Europeans, with the exception of the areas along the lower Mississippi River. There is no people, no legislature, no counselors. 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. I require a great deal of money for this war [with Britain]., Thierry Lentz, a Napolon historian and director of the Fondation Napolon in Paris, contends that, for Napolon, It was basically just a big real estate deal. All four started from the Mississippi River. Napoleon sent a massive 30,000 troops French expeditionary force commanded by his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to St. Domingue to accomplish this goal. According to the Library of Congress, the Louisiana Territory was mainly ignored by the French government and remained unprofitable. Jefferson soon commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to explore the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. But an elated Livingston was aware that nearly doubling the size of America would make it a major player on the world scene one day, and he permitted himself some verbal euphoria: We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives, he said. Americans cried Huzzah! and waved their hats, while French and Spanish residents sulked in glum silence. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. [42] The first group of bonds were issued on January 16, 1804, but the banks had already provided a 10 million franc advance to France in July 1803. In response, Jefferson sent future U.S. president James Monroe to Paris to aid Livingston in the New Orleans purchase talks. [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. Jefferson justified the purchase by rationalizing, "it is the case of a guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an important adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this for your good." In March 1802, he warned Madison that France intended to have a leading interest in the politics of our western country and was preparing to send 5,000 to 7,000 troops from its Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) to occupy New Orleans. None of these held a candle, though, to sugar, which dominated French colonial holdings. Beginning in the 17th century, France explored the Mississippi River valley and established scattered settlements in the region. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, reshaping the environmental and economic makeup of the country. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory See answers Advertisement Advertisement countsbrycem countsbrycem Answer: to fund its European wars. That same month Jefferson asked James Monroe, a former member of Congress and former governor of Virginia, to join Livingston in Paris as minister extraordinary with discretionary powers to spend $9,375,000 to secure New Orleans and parts of the Floridas (to consolidate the U.S. position in the southeastern part of the continent). From March 10 to September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district, under its first civil commandant, Amos Stoddard, who was appointed by the War Department. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Barb-Marbois received his orders on April 11, 1803, when Napolon summoned him. Advertisement Advertisement mira11111 mira11111 Answer: he needed money for the French War. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. [17] The signers were Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Franois Barb-Marbois. A mahogany and gilded bronze swan bed that belonged to the famous French beauty Juliette Rcamier is also on display. I have decided to sell Louisiana to the Americans. To make his point to his astonished brothers, Napolon abruptly stood up, then dropped back into the tub, drenching Joseph. Who bought the Louisiana Purchase? - TimesMojo By the middle of the 18th century, France controlled more of the present-day United States than any other European power: from New Orleans northeast to the Great Lakes and northwest to modern-day Montana. Peace is our passion, he declared, and expressed the concern that hotheaded members of the opposition Federalist Party might force us into war. He had already instructed Livingston in early 1802 to approach Napolons foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, to try to prevent the cession of the territory to France, if this had not already occurred, or, if the deal was done, to try to purchase New Orleans. France was worried Spain would take away the Caribbean. A Washington newspaper, the National Intelligencer, reflecting how most citizens felt, referred to the widespread joy of millions at an event which history will record among the most splendid in our annals. Though we have no historical evidence of how Jefferson felt about the purchase, notes Cerami, reports from those in his circle like Monroe refer to the presidents great pleasure, despite his fear that the deal had gone beyond his constitutional powers. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. [58] The institutionalization of slavery under U.S. law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. Why France Sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US Also, many Federalists were speculators in lands in upstate New York and New England and were hoping to sell these lands to farmers, who might go west instead, if the Louisiana Purchase went through. As a result, trappers pelts, agricultural produce and finished goods risked exposure and theft on open wharfs while awaiting shipment to the East Coast and beyond. France sold the Louisiana Territory to fund its European wars. 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. He probably concluded that, following American independence, France couldnt hope to maintain a colony on the American continent, says Jean Tulard, one of Frances foremost Napolon scholars. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory? 1. Louis. In a way, this almost came to pass in the War of 1812. [citation needed], During this period, south Louisiana received an influx of French-speaking refugee planters, who were permitted to bring their slaves with them, and other refugees fleeing the large slave revolt in Saint-Domingue. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau. PBS describes how by 1812, France had increased its army strength to 600,000 men, not to mention the thousands in the navy. How did France obtain the Louisiana Territory? - 2023 He could not or did not see the value in sending troops to defend worthless Louisiana, not with Saint-Domingue out of the equation. [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. Livingston replied that hewould be ready to purchase provided the sum was reduced to reasonable limits. Then he rushed home and worked until 3 a.m. writing a memorandum to Secretary of State Madison, concluding: We shall do all we can to cheapen the purchase; but my present sentiment is that we shall buy.. France retook it in 1800 when it more or less invaded Spain. Many people believed that he and others, including James Madison, were doing something they surely would have argued against with Alexander Hamilton. It remained in Spanish hands until 1800, when Napoleon Bonaparte negotiated a secret treaty with Spain and took the vast holding back in exchange for tiny Etruria in Northern Italy. It is not only New Orleans that I will cede, it is the whole colony without reservation. It took until 1820 for them to agree on theMissouri Compromise, which drew an imaginary line across the new territory that separated free and slave areas. There was no arguing with Napoleon, who would, after all,crown himself Emperor in 1804. Louverture, as a French general, had fended off incursions from other European powers, but had also begun to consolidate power for himself on the island. Spain, no longer a dominant European power, did little to develop Louisiana during the next three decades. United States and France conclude the Louisiana Purchase All or parts of 15 Western states would eventually be carved from its nearly 830,000 square miles, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. This was the key to our international influence., The bicentennial is being celebrated with yearlong activities in many of the states fashioned from the territory. For more than a century after La Salle took possession of it, the Louisiana Territory, with its scattered French, Spanish, Acadian and German settlements, along with those of Native Americans and American-born frontiersmen, was traded among European royalty at their whim. The revolution brought the colony to a state of insurrection and civil war. However, as Slate Magazine describes, the United States did not so much buy the land but rather the imperial rights to conquer it and take it from the Native Americans who'd lived there for millennia. The lack of instructions and the necessity of consulting ones government are always legitimate excuses in order to obtain delays in political affairs, he once wrote. Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. But if Haiti was under the control of the slaves, his plan was for naught. The Louisiana Purchase is considered one America's most important and prosperous investments. The difficulties and risks . What was the most important effect of the Louisiana Purchase? This, together with the successful French demand for an indemnity of 150 million francs in 1825, severely hampered Haiti's ability to repair its economy after decades of war. I renounce it with the greatest regret." As for the ever-succinct Thomas Jefferson, he wasted little time on rhetoric. The Louisiana Purchase was the start of the United States' incredible expansion from a group of Eastern Seaboard states on the North American continent. Auctions at which human bodies were prodded, compared, and purchased. [5], In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly upsetting Americans. 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 of Louisiana, which was to be Frances North American empire. Erin Blakemore is a journalist from Boulder, Colorado. The French government replied that these objections were baseless since the promise not to alienate Louisiana was not in the treaty of San Ildefonso itself and therefore had no legal force, and the Spanish government had ordered Louisiana to be transferred in October 1802 despite knowing for months that Britain had not recognized the King of Etruria in the Treaty of Amiens. Napoleon was reported to have said of Louisiana in his treasury minister's memoir, "To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.". With the colony in danger of being lost, the territory was less useful. The idea was taken up by lawmakers such as Senator James Ross of Pennsylvania, who drafted a resolution calling on Jefferson to form a 50,000-man army to take the city. That, in turn, would have meant our ideas on freedom and democracy would have carried less weight with the rest of the world. [25] The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. Pages 70 - 98 - Brainly First, an empowered United States could effectively act as a formidable rival to Britain. Livingston and Monroe were only authorized to spend up to $10 million for the purchase of New Orleans and West Florida. When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history. The Louisiana Purchase extended United States sovereignty across the Mississippi River, nearly doubling the nominal size of the country. (There is also a portrait of the marquis himself and a 1784 painting by French artist Jean Suau, Allegory of France Liberating America.) By the time Monroe arrived in Paris on April 12, the situation had, unknown to him, radically altered: Napolon had suddenly decided to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States.
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