Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition
of territory in central and western North America by the
United States from France in 1803.
Louisiana Purchase: Background
In 1803, the city of New Orleans controlled
access to the Mississippi because of its location at
the main access point to the river. Because of
this, New Orleans was already an important city
because of the need for shipping food and other
products between parts of the United States west of the
region of the Appalachian Mountains. Through a
treaty known as "Pinckney's Treaty" (a treaty signed with
Spain in October of 1795, Americans had a "right of deposit" in New Orleans.
This meant that they could use the port in New
Orleans to store their goods for export to other
regions. Americans also utilized their "right of deposit" to transport
goods such as tobacco, flour, pork, cider, butter,
and other products. This treaty also recognized the rights
of United States citizens to travel the entire Mississippi River which had become
extremely important to the commerce of thee western territories. In 1798, Spain revoked this treaty,
greatly upsetting Americans. It was restored In
1801.
In 1800, under the Treaty of San Ildefonso, Napoleon
(then emperor of France) returned the Louisiana
Territories to French control. The treaty was
kept secret until the official transfer to control
tool place in November of 1803.
After this action by Napoleon, Americans became fearful that they would lose their rights of use
the port in New Orleans. The American government
under Thomas Jefferson decided that to ensure a
continuation of long term access to the Mississippi
River, the United States would have to purchase the city of New Orleans and the nearby portions of Louisiana .
He sent emissaries to Paris to negotiate a purchase.
The result of this negotiations was an expanded
purchase of over 530,000,000 acres of French
territory in North America for 60 million Francs.
