The Louisiana Purchase
The Greatest Land Deal
in the History of the United States!
Where Was the Original
Louisiana Territory?
Who Claimed the Louisiana
Territory?
• Native Americans
• French
• British
• Spanish
• Americans
Native Americans
• 14,000 years ago —
Native Americans
began to occupy the
lower Mississippi
Valley.
Mississippi mound builders
French
• 1682 — French explorers
claimed the entire
Mississippi River
drainage and named it for
King Louis V.
• 1722 — New Orleans,
established by a private
French trading company
for the shipment of
exports from the
Mississippi Valley, mainly
furs, tobacco, and indigo,
became the capitol of the
Territory.
New Orleans
Shape Shifting
France held claim for 80 years.
British
SPANISH
WEST
Mississippi
River
New Orleans
BRITISH
EAST
LOUISIANA
.
• 1763 — In the Treaty of
Paris, which concluded the
Seven Years' War (known as
the "French and Indian War"
in North America), major land
exchanges are made. All of
Louisiana east of the
Mississippi, except New
Orleans, goes to Britain.
• New Orleans and all of
Louisiana west of the
Mississippi goes to Spain.
Spanish
West of the
Mississippi
East of the
Mississippi
U.S.
Mississippi R.
SPANISH
New Orleans
and
Florida
1783 — Following the
American War of
Independence, Britain
cedes its old Louisiana
Territory land east of
the Mississippi, to the
United States, and
gives Florida back to
Spain.
Shape Shifting
Spain held claim for 38 years.
Spanish New Orleans
Si! si!
America
may use
my
beautiful
port.
Charles IV, King of Spain
1795 — Charles
Pinckney, U.S.
Minister to Spain,
negotiates an
agreement with Spain
allowing Americans to
use New Orleans as a
duty-free port for
foreign commerce, for
renewable three-year
periods.
Napoleon and the Mosquitoes
O K Guys, I’m
taking over!
That’s
what
you
think!
Napoleon, an aggressive,
ambitious military genius.
Mosquito, an aggressive,
yellow-fever-carrying insect.
Why Does Napoleon Want
Louisiana?
• Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte has 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
I LOVE
power!
• His scheme includes the
recapture of Louisiana from
a very weak Spain.
• Napoleon takes a break
from his conquests in
Europe to send French
troops to the West Indies.
The BIG Secret
• 1800 — Secretly, under
pressure from Napoleon
Bonaparte, King Charles
IV of Spain, gives ALL of
Louisiana, including New
Orleans, back to France,
on condition that it not be
sold or given to any other
country.
• Weak Spain and strong
France secretly sign the
Treaty of San Idelfonso.
Oui,
Charlie.
For dis, I
weel
geeve
your sonin-law a
leetle
Italian
kingdom.
First Consul Napoleon
Bonaparte
Shape Shifting
France held 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.
Mississippi River
Allegheny Mountains
• Only four crude roads crossed
the Allegheny Mountains.
• The U.S. ended on the
eastern banks of the
Mississippi River.
• Florida was governed by
Spain
Ohio River
Spanish
Florida
Western U.S. Territories
APPALACHIAN MTS.
Out West,
we
frontiersmen
have our
own agenda.
Ha! Ha!
In the
East, we
have all
the good
ports
The half-million
Americans (one out of
10) who already lived
west of the
Appalachian
Mountains felt they
had found their own
“national” interests.
Western U.S. Territories
Many people along the
Mississippi 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
Jefferson
just wants
a little
port.
• 1801 — President Thomas
Jefferson is shocked when
he learns the secret Treaty
of San Idelfonso.
Robert Livingston,
Minister to France
• Considering strong French
control over New Orleans to
be a serious threat, he
instructs his Minister to
France in Paris, Robert R.
Livingston, to try to buy
New Orleans and Florida, or
at least western Florida.
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
start a war on the
continent.
• The French decline to
sell New Orleans or
western Florida.
I weel have it
all!!
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
Toussaint L’Overture
Florida
Haiti
The
West
Indies
Two years later…the French army off the coast of
Florida in the West Indies is having some
problems.
Napoleon’s Plan Collapses
I
LOVE
power!
General Toussaint
L’Overture
1803- Napoleon's plan
collapses when his
Caribbean army is
defeated by yellow fever
carrying mosquitoes and
a brilliant black general
named Toussaint
L’Overture who has
been leading a slave
revolt on French Haiti for
12 years.
The Best-Laid Plans…
I hate
mosquitoes
!
• The remaining French
troops are 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 disintegrates, the
loss of French Haiti makes
Louisiana unnecessary.
What Jefferson Wanted
I just want a little
port near the
Mississippi River.
You can
count on
me to
secure
the deal,
Mr.
President.
Jefferson Persists
James Monroe, Minister
to Spain and France
• President Jefferson,
learning that the
defeated French might
be willing to consider
selling some land after
all, sends Monroe to
Paris with instructions
from Secretary of State,
James Madison, to buy
a small piece of land.
• Congress appropriates
$2 million.
The French Reply
$2
million?
No
deal!
Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Perigord, the
French Minister of Foreign
Relations, declines the offer.
Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Perigord, the
French Minister of Foreign
Relations
The BIG Surprise!
You may
have zee
whole
territory.
I’m going
home.
Needing money to
prosecute his
campaigns elsewhere
on the globe, Napoleon
changes his mind and
decides to offer to sell
ALL of Louisiana,
(including New Orleans)
to the United States.
Let’s Make A Deal
• Robert Livingston is
prepared to pay 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
I will stretch
my
presidential
power ‘till it
cracks!
• Although there are no
provisions in the
Constitution for buying
territories, Jefferson, a
Republican, has
Congress appropriate
$10 million.
• The Federalist Party is
very unhappy.
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
Let’s see
James,
Congress
only gave
us $10
million.
James Monroe,
Minister to France
and Spain
Robert Livingston,
Minister to France
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
blatant use of executive
power, but as a waste of
money.
Louisiana Purchase Treaty
• Nevertheless, the treaty was
signed.
What Jefferson Got
$15,000,000!
• April 30, 1803 - the
United States
negotiates the purchase
of the Louisiana
Territory including the
port of New Orleans
from France for $15
million.
• With a stroke of a pen
America doubled in
size, making it one of
the largest nations in
the world.
A Sweet Deal!
The sale included over
600 million acres at a
cost of less than 3 cents
an acre in what today is
the better part of 13
states between the
Rocky Mountains and
the Mississippi River.
Without Shedding A Single
Drop of Blood!
•
The Transfer of Louisiana in
St. Louis, 1804.
For President Thomas
Jefferson it was a
diplomatic and political
triumph.
• In one fell swoop the
purchase of Louisiana
ended the threat of war
with France and opened
up the land west of the
Mississippi to
settlement.
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