Louisiana Purchase

Purchase by the USA from France in 1803 of an area covering 2,144,000 sq km/828,000 sq mi, including the present-day states of Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Oklahoma. The price paid was $15 million (60 million francs), or roughly 4 cents an acre.

The purchase, which doubled the size of the USA, marked the end of Napoleon's plans for a colonial empire and ensured free navigation on the Mississippi River for the USA.

Called the ‘greatest land deal in history’, the Louisiana Purchase was an unexpected opportunity for the USA. Following the French and Indian War, the Louisiana territory was ceded to Spain by France in 1763. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte took back the land in exchange for parts of Tuscany in Italy. He told Spain that he would conquer Tuscany for them, and that he would use the Louisiana area as a buffer between their North American settlements and the USA. However, Napoleon backed out of the promise and France and Spain went to war, during which Spain closed the Mississippi to all US trade, a situation that President Thomas Jefferson could not tolerate. In 1803, Jefferson sent James Monroe to talk to Napoleon about purchasing the port city of New Orleans and part of Louisiana territory, to protect trade on the Mississippi River.

Meanwhile, Napoleon's troops were dying of yellow fever in the West Indies and war with Britain was looming. By the time Monroe arrived, Napoleon had already decided to sell all the Louisiana territory to the USA for $15 million, so that he could take the money and focus on conquering parts of Europe. The purchase of the Louisiana territory was a very popular move for Jefferson, and it was the main reason that he swept to a second term.