Napoleon wanted its revenues and productivity for France restored. In 1800, Napoleon, the First Consul of the French Republic, regained ownership of Louisiana as part of a broader effort to re-establish a French colonial empire in North America. Why did the French leave Louisiana? The problem with Saint-Domingue was that its entire economy was supported by and depended entirely upon slavery. We strive for accuracy and fairness. But when the colonial government back in St. Domingue refused to recognize the law, the groundwork was laid for violence and revolt. Why did France give Louisiana to Spain? (Louisiana Shaping) They lost a lot of resources due to previous losses in other areas of the world. Among Eurocentric circles, the Louisiana Purchase was seen as one of the greatest land deals in history. [citation needed], During this period, south Louisiana received an influx of French-speaking refugee planters, who were permitted to bring their slaves with them, and other refugees fleeing the large slave revolt in Saint-Domingue. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. This week (May 2) in 1803, the United States and France formally signed the treaty that transferred the Louisiana Territory, including the port city of New Orleans, to the United States for the paltry sum of $11,250,000. Not all Americans agreed, however. But by the time Victor assembled enough men and ships in January 1803, ice blocked the Dutchport, making it impossible for him to set sail. This must have been a wrenching moment for Jefferson, who had long been a Francophile. 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In the 1780s, it produced 60% of the world's coffee and supplied Britain and France with 40% of its sugar. Another concern was whether it was proper to grant citizenship to the French, Spanish, and free black people living in New Orleans, as the treaty would dictate. Napoleon Bonaparte used the cash to finance his war efforts, but he was finally and permanently defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. That leads to the question as to why on Earth would France sell so much land, or at least the rights to it 828,000 acres for what amounted to 4 cents an acre? In January 1802, France sent General Charles Leclerc on an expedition to Saint-Domingue to reassert French control over a colony that had become essentially autonomous under Louverture. When word got around that Napoleon was giving up Louisiana to the Americans, not everybody agreed. Jefferson tasked James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston with purchasing New Orleans. [22] In 1804 Haiti declared its independence; but fearing a slave revolt at home, Jefferson and the rest of Congress refused to recognize the new republic, the second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade embargo against it. [5], In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly upsetting Americans. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, reshaping the environmental and economic makeup of the country. One man is everything.. The AdamsOns Treaty with Spain resolved the issue upon ratification in 1821. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. The treaty was dated April 30 and signed on May 2. [53][54], The eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its source to the 31st parallel, though the source of the Mississippi was, at the time, unknown. This deal between the United States and France sold over 500 million acres at a bargain price of fewer than . The French were fascinated by Americawhich they often symbolized in paintings and drawings as a befeathered Noble Savage standing beside an alligatorbut they could not decide whether it was a new Eden or, as the naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon declared, a primitive place fit only for degenerate life-forms. But when French forces invaded Haiti in an attempt to restore the original order, the slave rebellion refused to budge. [47] However by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. When Monroe and Livingston were offered the opportunity to buy the entire territory, they could not help but be excited. He had a vision of America as an empire of liberty, says Douglas Brinkley. By 1860, there weremore than100,000 slaves in Missouri, and slaves were valued at over $44 million (about $112 billion today). The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. The treaty was signed by Barb-Marbois, Livingston and Monroe on May 2 and backdated to April 30. Lucien later reported in a memoirthat the pair sought out their brother in the Tuileries, where they found the ruler indulging in a bath. Since the late 1780s, Americans had been moving westward into the Ohio River and Tennessee River valleys, and these settlers were highly dependent on free access to the Mississippi River and the strategic port of New Orleans. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Even in 1803, that was dirt cheap. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau. Cantonment Belle Fontaine 8051826 The First U.S. Fort West of the Mississippi River. They approached the French with the offer to buy New Orleans, a port city of vital significance to American trade that they worried about France owning. I require a great deal of money for this war [with Britain]., Thierry Lentz, a Napolon historian and director of the Fondation Napolon in Paris, contends that, for Napolon, It was basically just a big real estate deal. The social order of the island crumbled and in an attempt to stop the violence, France abolished slavery. How was the Louisiana Territory acquired? From March 10 to September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district, under its first civil commandant, Amos Stoddard, who was appointed by the War Department. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. Its about more than just a humdinger of a real estate deal. A Washington newspaper, the National Intelligencer, reflecting how most citizens felt, referred to the widespread joy of millions at an event which history will record among the most splendid in our annals. Though we have no historical evidence of how Jefferson felt about the purchase, notes Cerami, reports from those in his circle like Monroe refer to the presidents great pleasure, despite his fear that the deal had gone beyond his constitutional powers. This created an unstable situation at the western border which could draw his young country into the Napoleonic Wars. Twelve years before, he had returned from a five-year stint as American minister to Paris, shipping home 86 cases of furnishings and books he had picked up there. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle, and the Perdido is the western boundary of Florida. Cookie Policy The Louisiana Purchase was one of history's greatest bargains, a chance for the United States to buy what promised to be one of France's largest and wealthiest territories and eliminate a. Without that, the United States' international influence would be less, as would its influence over the development of democracies. The Louisiana Purchase opened up a new can of worms in the United Stateshow much of the new territory should be open to slavery? And the price, $15 million, or about four cents an acre, was a breathtaking bargain. It would have seemed unthinkable for France to cede any of its colonial territories before 1791. Napoleon sent a massive 30,000 troops French expeditionary force commanded by his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to St. Domingue to accomplish this goal. . [57] As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being admitted as "slave states." Federalists tried to block the purchase by claiming the land belonged to Spain and not France. The Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. Everybody who has taken grade-school history knows the story. You have come to a very corrupt world, Napolon told him frankly, adding roguishly that Talleyrand was the right man to explain what he meant by corruption. While this was just a rumor, he had made up his mind to sell the territory. As France and the United States negotiated the Louisiana purchase, Haiti became an independent country run by the victorious former slaves. Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves. French historians point out that Napolon had several reasons for this decision. The whole thing came as a total surprise to him and his negotiating team in Paris, because it was, after all, Napolons idea, not his., Showing up unexpectedly at the dinner party Livingston gave on April 12 for Monroes arrival, Barb-Marbois discreetly asked Livingston to meet him later that night at the treasury office. This, together with the successful French demand for an indemnity of 150 million francs in 1825, severely hampered Haiti's ability to repair its economy after decades of war. He had contacts at Britains Baring & Co. Bank, which agreed, along with several other banks, to make the actual purchase and pay Napolon cash. He took possession of the whole Mississippi River basin, he avowed, in the name of the most high, mighty, invincible and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by Grace of God king of France and Navarre, 14th of that name. And it was in honor of Louis XIV that he named the land Louisiana. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the "preemptive" right to obtain "Indian" lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.[1][2]. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle first claimed the Louisiana Territory, which he named for King Louis XIV, during a. He argued that the three-year term of the 1795 treaty that had granted America this right and free passage through Spanish territory on the Mississippi had expired. But if Haiti was under the control of the slaves, his plan was for naught. All Rights Reserved. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. The press joined the fray. [10], In 1803, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman, began to help negotiate with France at the request of Jefferson. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), The American Presidency with Bill Clinton, https://www.history.com/news/louisiana-purchase-price-french-colonial-slave-rebellion, The Louisiana Purchase Was Driven by a Slave Rebellion. Acquisition of Louisiana was a long-term goal of President Thomas Jefferson, who was especially eager to gain control of the crucial Mississippi River port of New Orleans. Behind the scenes, he plotted to take the island back over and reinstitute slavery. With the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, this is one of the threethings that created the modern United States, says Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies in New Orleans and coauthor with the late Stephen E. Ambrose of The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation. Inspired by republican ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality, they pressed for their rights, and some were given the right to vote in 1790 by the French government. Jefferson justified the purchase by rationalizing, "it is the case of a guardian, investing the money of his ward in purchasing an important adjacent territory; & saying to him when of age, I did this for your good." Why did . Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. As the lands were being gradually settled by American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired "piece by piece." But the purchase was also fueled by a slave revolt in Haitiand tragically, it ended up expanding slavery in the United States. The jewel of the French overseas empire was Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean, which is today's Haiti on the large island of Hispaniola. I renounce Louisiana. France worried about an alliance between America and England. It remained in Spanish hands until 1800, when Napoleon Bonaparte negotiated a secret treaty with Spain and took the vast holding back in exchange for tiny Etruria in Northern Italy. Its believed that the failure of France to put down a slave revolution in Haiti, the impending war with Great Britain and probable British naval blockade of France combined with French economic difficulties may have prompted Napoleon to offer Louisiana for sale to the United States. [64], The purchase of the Louisiana Territory led to debates over the idea of indigenous land rights that persisted into the mid 20th century. [5], Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. Why did France sell Louisiana? The purchase included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, including the entirety of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; large portions of North Dakota and South Dakota; the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; the portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River; the northeastern section of New Mexico; northern portions of Texas; New Orleans and the portions of the present state of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River; and small portions of land within Alberta and Saskatchewan. As the Library of Congress describes, Saint-Domingue was incredibly valuable. In a way, this almost came to pass in the War of 1812. [44][42] With the bankers' help, the French and American negotiators settled on a price of 80 million francs ($15 million), down from an initial price of 100 million francs, a sum the Americans could not afford and the financers could not provide. Start your free trial today. How did the French Own Louisiana? To France, it was a backwater sort of like owning Mediterranean Avenue in Monopoly. With Congress and a vociferous press calling for action, Jefferson faced the nations most serious crisis since the American Revolution. According to the Library of Congress, the Louisiana Territory was mainly ignored by the French government and remained unprofitable. "[29] The sale of course was not "worthless"the U.S. actually did take possession. By doubling the size of the U.S., the purchase added vast swaths of territory that, pro-slavery advocates argued, should be filled with slaves. He also realized that with Britain's superior naval power, it would be relatively easy for them to take Louisiana at will. 2), which is just what Jefferson did. Joseph A. Harriss U.S. officials feared that France, resurgent under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, would soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico. The superpower had built a vast network of colonies in the Americas, capitalizing on European tastes for coffee, indigo and other commodities. It was even subject to a speculative bubble which ruined fortunes. The First Consul happened to be sitting in his bath when his brothers arrived. Alarmed over the French actions and its intention to re-establish an empire in North America, Jefferson declared neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to the French, but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France from regaining a foothold. His soldiers died on the island and he knew he could not establish control there. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and the UK was imminent. In June, Napolon ordered Gen. Claude Victor to set out for New Orleans from the French controlled Netherlands. Pakenham was ordered to conduct the New Orleans/Mobile campaign even in the middle of the peace negotiations in late 1814. But Napolons mind was already made up. The land which was bought from France, virtually doubled the area of the United States, cost only 15 million dollars and gave the US security against development by the French. [43] Hopes brought to the transaction experience with issuing sovereign bonds and Barings brought its American connections.[42]. What Napoleon needed was a way to divest himself of the territory while at the same time preventing it from falling into British hands. When Joseph continued to object, Napoleon shouted, "You are insolent!" Overcoming the opposition of the Federalist Party, Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison persuaded Congress to ratify and fund the Louisiana Purchase. In 1718, the French established New Orleans, and scant groups of colonists moved in. [57], The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but incorporating provisions from the preceding French and Spanish rule (for instance, Spain had prohibited slavery of Native Americans in 1769, but some slaves of mixed African-Native American descent were still being held in St. Louis in Upper Louisiana when the U.S. took over). Her book, The Heroine's Bookshelf (Harper), won the Colorado Book Award for nonfiction. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. Though the Americans then countered with $12.7 million, the deal was struck for $15 million on April 29. The acquisition of the area would increase the size of the country two-fold; it was one of the largest property proceedings in history, involving more land than today's France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and the British . By any measure, it was one of the most colossal land transactions in history, involving an area larger than todays France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the British Isles combined. Many Southern slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory might inspire American-held slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. Even though Europeans had ostensibly laid claim to Louisiana for centuries, it remained largely undeveloped, with few wanting to move there. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports. By the time of the Louisiana Purchase, its population of whites, slaves of African origin and free persons of color was about 8,000. See chapter iii, "Treaty Ceding Louisiana to the United States" (1803 ff.). At the time, Britain and France were at war in Europe, and if France had not sold Louisiana that war would most likely have spread to North America. But Napolons troops in Saint Domingue were being decimated by a revolution and an outbreak of yellow fever. UNDERSTANDABLY, Pierre Clment de Laussat was saddened by this unexpected turn of events. While the concept of "manifest destiny" would not make it into the American lexicon until 1845, the idea that the United States had a divine mission to expand had been in place since the earliest colonial times. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. All four started from the Mississippi River. Why did France sell Louisiana? Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin added that since the power to negotiate treaties was specifically granted to the president, the only way extending the country's territory by treaty could not be a presidential power would be if it were specifically excluded by the Constitution (which it was not). But the official view was summed up by Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac, whom Louis XIV named governor of the territory in 1710: The people are aheap of the dregs of Canada, he sniffed in a 42-page report to the king written soon after he arrived. Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. [50] Spain insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. Let the Land rejoice, Gen. Horatio Gates, a prominent New York state legislator, told President Thomas Jefferson when details of the deal reached Washington, D.C. For you have bought Louisiana for a song., Rich in gold, silver and other ores, as well as huge forests and endless lands for grazing and farming, the new acquisition would make America immensely wealthy. According to Slavery and Remembrance, the French imported nearly 800,000 enslaved Africans to the colony for brutal plantation work in what was one of the most violent slavery systems in the Americas. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. They wrote an enthusiasticletter to Secretary of State James Madison: "An acquisition of so great an extent was, we well Know, not contemplated by our appointment; but we are persuaded that the Circumstances and Considerations which induced us to make it, will justify us, in the measure, to our Government and Country.". II, Sec. The key to opening the western goal was securing the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Territory. Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. "[19] On July 4, 1803, the treaty was announced,[20] but the documents did not arrive in Washington, D.C. until July 14. By the sale, Napolon hoped to create a huge country in the Western Hemisphere to serve as a counterweight to Britain and maybe make trouble for it., On April 11, when Livingston called on Talleyrand for what he thought was yet another futile attempt to deal, the foreign minister, after the de rigueur small talk, suddenly asked whether the United States would perchance wish to buy the whole of the Louisiana Territory. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo, and restored the American right to deposit goods. [23], After Monroe and Livingston had returned from France with news of the purchase, an official announcement of the purchase was made on July 4, 1803. In exchange, the United States acquired the vast domain of Louisiana Territory, some 828,000 square miles of land. The split-screen messaging of Ohio's . The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. [14][15] The total of $15million is equivalent to about $337million in 2021 dollars, or 64 cents per acre. As described by Louisiana State University, France even went so far as to send convicts from debtors' prisons to the colony in 1717 in order to increase its settlement. Plenty of sunshine. The Louisiana Purchase was an incredible deal for the United States, the final cost totaling less than five cents per acre at $15 million (about $283 million in today's dollars). are incalculable, warned the U.S. vice-consul in New Orleans, Williams E. Hulings, in a dispatch to Secretary of State James Madison. In the meeting, he said that Napoleon had read an account in the London press that 50,000 British troops might be sent to New Orleans. [59] In 1808 two military forts with trading factories were built, Fort Osage along the Missouri River in western present-day Missouri and Fort Madison along the Upper Mississippi River in eastern present-day Iowa. There is on the globe one single spot, Jefferson wrote, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. They also feared that this would lead to Western states being formed, which would likely be Republican, and dilute the political power of New England Federalists. [63], The Louisiana Purchase was negotiated between France and the United States, without consulting the various Indian tribes who lived on the land and who had not ceded the land to any colonial power. The French government replied that these objections were baseless since the promise not to alienate Louisiana was not in the treaty of San Ildefonso itself and therefore had no legal force, and the Spanish government had ordered Louisiana to be transferred in October 1802 despite knowing for months that Britain had not recognized the King of Etruria in the Treaty of Amiens.
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