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

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• 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.

Mississippi River

New Orleans

SPANISHWEST

BRITISHEAST

LOUISIANA.

Spanish

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.

Mississippi R.

New Orleansand

Florida

U.S.

West of the Mississippi

East of the Mississippi

SPANISH

Shape Shifting

Spain held claim for 38 years.

Spanish New Orleans 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.

Charles IV, King of Spain

Si! si! America may use

my beautiful

port.

Napoleon and the Mosquitoes

Napoleon, an aggressive, ambitious military genius.

Mosquito, an aggressive, yellow-fever-carrying insect.

O K Guys, I’m taking over!

That’s what you

think!

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

• 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.

I LOVE power!

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. First Consul Napoleon

Bonaparte

Oui,

Charlie. For dis, I

weel geeve

your son-in-law a

leetle Italian

kingdom.

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.

• 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

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

ports

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• 1801 — President Thomas

Jefferson is shocked when he learns the secret Treaty of San Idelfonso.

• 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 just wants

a little port.

Robert Livingston, 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 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

Two years later…the French army off the coast of Florida in the West Indies is having some

problems.

Haiti

Florida The

West

Indies

Napoleon’s Plan Collapses

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.

I LOVE power!

General Toussaint L’Overture

The Best-Laid Plans…• 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.

I hate mosquitoes

!

What Jefferson WantedI 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, sends Monroe to Paris with instructions from Secretary of State, James Madison, to buy a small piece of land.

• Congress appropriates $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, declines the offer.

$2 million?

No deal!

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the

French Minister of Foreign Relations

The BIG Surprise!

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.

You may have zee

whole territory. I’m going

home.

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

• 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.

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 gave

us $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 blatant 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 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.

$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 the better part 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.

• 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.The Transfer of Louisiana in

St. Louis, 1804.

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