An overview
The purchase of Louisiana by the united states from the french government is considered the most incredible real estate deal in the entire history of humankind. After much bargaining, the US finally approved to pay 15 million dollars to France for the Louisiana territory.
Read also: how-was-the-louisiana-territtory-purchased?
The purchase happened in 1803, under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Louisiana was spread across 828000 square miles stretching from the rocky mountains to the Mississippi river and from the border of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The Louisiana territory consisted of thirteen states.
By purchasing the region, the united states became almost double its current size and hence, one of the most powerful nations worldwide. Europeans started arriving in the late 1500s. It soon became a french colony and was named la Louisiane, after the french king Louis XIV. Spain then occupied Louisiana around the 1770s.
The Us proposed the Louisiana purchase treaty in 1803, according to which the area would be divided into two territories, the Orlean territory, and the Louisiana district. In the san Ildefonso treaty of 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte acquired the territory of Louisiana from Spain.
However, he kept this a secret for the next few years since he had ambitions to build a substantial colonial empire in the united states. He failed in his attempt to conquer Saint Domingue and had to withdraw his troops in 1803. soon after, Haiti declared its independence, and napoleon had to give up his desire to become the American emperor. He sold his territory of Louisiana to the US in the Louisiana Purchase treaty of 1803.
