Louisiana Purchase

Examples of Louisiana Purchase in the following topics:

• The Louisiana Purchase

  • The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States overnight and marked a major invasion into American Indian territory.
  • The Louisiana Purchase, often considered Jefferson's greatest achievement as president, involved the purchase of the entire Mississippi basin from Napoleonic France in 1803.
  • Jefferson disliked the idea of purchasing Louisiana from France: He believed that a U.S. president did not have the authority to make such a deal, as it was not specified in the Constitution.
  • The American delegates, dumbfounded by the offer, thought Napoleon might change his mind, and so they quickly agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803.
  • Although the Louisiana Purchase brought new opportunities for U.S. expansion, it marked a major invasion into American Indian lands in the western part of the continent.

• Incorporating Louisiana

  • Livingston was authorized to purchase New Orleans.
  • Jefferson disliked the idea of purchasing Louisiana from France, as that could imply that France had a right to be in Louisiana.
  • On Saturday, April 30, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé Marbois in Paris.
  • After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this famous statement, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives...
  • Analyze the political and economic circumstances surrounding the purchase of the Louisiana Territory

• Jefferson's Agrarian Policy

  • This achievement occurred in the form of the Louisiana Purchase under Jefferson, the largest land deal in the history of the United States.
  • Despite the Jeffersonian ideal of a limited central government (which would not be empowered to negotiate such an expansive land deal) and Jefferson's own commitment to policies for federal debt reduction (the United States paid France fifteen million dollars for the territory), the Louisiana Purchase symbolized the success of Jeffersonian Democracy in several ways.
  • With the Louisiana Purchase, new resources, trading routes, and extensive contact with other territories and provinces allowed for unprecedented opportunities for American farmers to cement their independence by populating western regions.
  • Although the Louisiana Purchase brought new opportunities for U.S. expansion, it also had several long-term detrimental effects.
  • With the Louisiana Purchase, Indian tribes could be forcibly removed to westernmost areas—facilitating several massive and coercive redistributions of Native American tribes over the course of the nineteenth century.

• The Rise of the West

  • In 1803, Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the nation.
  • The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 increased the geographical size of the United States significantly.

• Conclusion: Early Trials

  • Jefferson, who wanted to expand the United States to bring about his “empire of liberty,” realized his greatest triumph in 1803 when the United States bought the Louisiana territory from France.
  • Perhaps the greatest real-estate deal in American history, the Louisiana Purchase greatly enhanced the Jeffersonian vision of the United States as an agrarian republic in which yeomen farmers worked the land.
  • The Louisiana Purchase and the journey of Lewis and Clark captured the imagination of many who dedicated themselves to the economic exploitation of the western lands and the expansion of American influence and power.
  • At the same time, the treaty frustrated those Americans who considered Texas a part of the Louisiana Purchase.
  • This map shows the territory added to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

• Settlement of the New Land

  • Aggressive negotiations with Spain brought acquisition of some Floridian territory and Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase of 1803 more than doubled the size of the United States.
  • In the mid nineteenth century, war with Mexico resulted in the acquisition of Texas, much of the southwest, the Gadsden Purchase, and California; stretching the scope of the United States from the Atlantic to Pacific.
  • The continental expansion of the United States was mostly accomplished through treaty, purchase, or war with southern neighbors over the span of the nineteenth century.

• Treaty of Paris

  • The Treaty of Paris is frequently noted as the point at which France gave Louisiana to Spain.
  • This included Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which was to be part of the British territory of West Florida.
  • The Mississippi River corridor, in what is modern-day Louisiana, was to be reunited following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819

• New France and Louisiana

  • New France, colonized by France in the 16th century, included the colonies of Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland, and Louisiana.
  • The territory was then divided into five colonies, each with its own administration: Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland (Plaisance), and Louisiana.
  • Louisiana was an administrative district of New France and was under French control from 1682–1763 and 1800–1803.
  • Britain received the lands east of the Mississippi River, including Canada, Acadia, and parts of Louisiana, while Spain received the territory to the west—the larger portion of Louisiana.
  • Spain returned its portion of Louisiana to France in 1800 under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso, but French leader Napoleon Bonaparte sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, permanently ending French colonial efforts on the North American mainland.

• The Peace of Paris

  • France also ceded the eastern half of French Louisiana to Britain; that is, the area from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains.
  • The Treaty of Paris is frequently noted as the point at which France gave Louisiana to Spain.
  • The Treaty of Paris was to give Britain the east side of the Mississippi (including Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which was to be part of the British territory of West Florida).
  • The Mississippi River corridor, in what is modern-day Louisiana, was to be reunited following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819.

• The Lewis and Clark Expedition

  • After the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to lead an expedition called the "Corps of Discovery."
  • Upon their return, Meriwether Lewis was named governor of the Louisiana Territory.
  • This map illustrates the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, through the Louisiana Territory and across the present-day Pacific Northwest to the Pacific Ocean.