why did france sell louisiana

Part or all of 15 states were eventually created from the land deal, which is considered one of the most important achievements of Thomas Jeffersons presidency. The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane, lit. This would allow the Americans to retain clear access to the river. 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. This success stuck in Napoleon's craw. Napoleon's brothers, Lucien and Joseph, objected, thinking it a black mark on France's reputation and glory. France wanted to end Louvertre's rule and reinstate slavery. Why did France sell the Louisiana Territory to the U.S in 1803? The French and Indian war cost her Canada and all of her other possessions on the east bank of the Mississippi. As a result, Thomas Jefferson instructed James Monroe and Robert Livingston to purchase New Orleans in 1802. Who Owned Louisiana First? - CLJ Why did France sell Louisiana? . Federalists tried to block the purchase by claiming the land belonged to Spain and not France. Louisiana Purchase - Wikipedia The Louisiana Purchase was the latter, a treaty. The Louisiana Purchase: Why did Napoleon sell? | Bruce Kauffmann Morales proclamation meant that American merchandise could no longer be stored in New Orleans warehouses. Napoleon informed his brothers of the sale and asked for their opinion. When word got around that Napoleon was giving up Louisiana to the Americans, not everybody agreed. The History of the Louisiana Purchase - ThoughtCo The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, which had become vital to the growing trade of the western territories. Everybody who has taken grade-school history knows the story. The overwhelming stink of human waste. [48], A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. The prospect had been all the more pleasing because the territorys capital, New Orleans, he had noted with approval, was a city with a great deal of social life, elegance and goodbreeding. He also had liked the fact that the city had all sorts of mastersdancing, music, art, and fencing, and that even though there were no book shops or libraries, books could be ordered from France. Having arrived in New Orleans from Paris with his wife and three daughters just nine months earlier, in March 1803, the cultivated, worldly French functionary had expected to reign for six or eight years as colonial prefect over the vast territory of Louisiana, which was to be Frances North American empire. Without the profits from Saint-Domingue, it did not make sense to try to defend the sprawling Louisiana Territory, and Napoleon was worried about the British. The AdamsOns Treaty with Spain resolved the issue upon ratification in 1821. To Napoleon's line of thinking, if the United States took control of Louisiana, then it would deny Britain the opportunity of conquering it. Peace is our passion, he declared, and expressed the concern that hotheaded members of the opposition Federalist Party might force us into war. He had already instructed Livingston in early 1802 to approach Napolons foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, to try to prevent the cession of the territory to France, if this had not already occurred, or, if the deal was done, to try to purchase New Orleans. But when the colonial government back in St. Domingue refused to recognize the law, the groundwork was laid for violence and revolt. Negotiating with French Treasury Minister Franois Barb-Marbois, the American representatives quickly agreed to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana after it was offered. The U.S. adapted the former Spanish facility at Fort Bellefontaine as a fur trading post near St. Louis in 1804 for business with the Sauk and Fox. 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 difficulties and risks . As quoted by Smithsonian Magazine, historian Charles A. Cerami said, "If we had not made this purchase, it would have pinched off the possibility of our becoming a continental power." dollar. While this strategy was successful at first, by 1803, disease and heavy casualties forced the French to withdraw. Jefferson confronted questions of presidential authority in deciding whether or not to acquire the territory, since the US Constitution does not explicitly give the president the power to purchase territory. There he confirmed Napolons desire to sell the territory for $22,500,000. When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. 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. Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri already had some slaveholders in the 18th and early 19th century. The following year, the District of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Louisiana. [52] If the territory included all the tributaries of the Mississippi on its western bank, the northern reaches of the purchase extended into the equally ill-defined British possessionRupert's Land of British North America, now part of Canada. [12], Although the foreign minister Talleyrand opposed the plan, on April 10, 1803, Napoleon told the Treasury Minister Franois Barb-Marbois that he was considering selling the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. In the 1780s, it produced 60% of the world's coffee and supplied Britain and France with 40% of its sugar. 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. . The Louisiana Purchase, made 200 years ago this month, nearly doubled the size of the United States. The two powers were at peace in early 1803, having signed the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, which, as explained by Britannica, ended hostilities between the two nations. Why did France sell Louisiana : to finance the conquests. If Napoleon's designs had succeeded, perhaps his decision to abandon Louisiana would be looked at in history as a bit more shrewd than it seemed at first blush. At the time of the purchase, the territory of Louisiana's non-native population was around 60,000 inhabitants, of whom half were enslaved Africans. He had always seen Saint Domingue, with a population of more than 500,000, producing enough sugar, coffee, indigo, cotton and cocoa to fill some 700 ships a year, as Frances most important holding in the Western Hemisphere. [25] The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. [31], Madison (the "Father of the Constitution") assured Jefferson that the Louisiana Purchase was well within even the strictest interpretation of the Constitution. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned over the purchase's constitutionality. They burned cities, used guerrilla warfare and killed thousands. Then, too, Napolon was gearing up for another campaign against Britain and needed funds for that. Also, many Federalists were speculators in lands in upstate New York and New England and were hoping to sell these lands to farmers, who might go west instead, if the Louisiana Purchase went through. 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. [18] After the signing Livingston famously stated, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank. [28], Henry Adams claimed "The sale of Louisiana to the United States was trebly invalid; if it were French property, Bonaparte could not constitutionally alienate it without the consent of the French Chambers; if it were Spanish property, he could not alienate it at all; if Spain had a right of reclamation, his sale was worthless. [62] The U.S. later built or expanded forts along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, including adding to Fort Bellefontaine, and constructing Fort Armstrong (1816) and Fort Edwards (1816) in Illinois, Fort Crawford (1816) in Wisconsin, Fort Snelling (1819) in Minnesota, and Fort Atkinson (1819) in Nebraska. The split-screen messaging of Ohio's . This was the key to our international influence., The bicentennial is being celebrated with yearlong activities in many of the states fashioned from the territory. A mahogany and gilded bronze swan bed that belonged to the famous French beauty Juliette Rcamier is also on display. Spains King Charles IV finally got around to signing the royal decree officially transferring the territory to France, and on October 16, the Spanish administrator in New Orleans, Juan Ventura Morales, who had agreed to administer the colony until his French replacement, Laussat, could arrive, arbitrarily ended the American right to deposit cargo in the city duty-free. None of these held a candle, though, to sugar, which dominated French colonial holdings. 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 .The emergence of a vastly larger British North America might also have made it easier to confine slavery within the southern states. Not all Americans agreed, however. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon. As described by History, under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, the enslaved allied with nonwhite free people and successfully overthrew the slave order, taking control of all of Hispaniola, not just Saint-Domingue. Gentlemen, he announced, think what you please about it. Louisiana Purchase Map, Significance & Causes | What Was the Louisiana [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). And the price, $15 million, or about four cents an acre, was a breathtaking bargain. Why Is New Orleans So French? - CLJ - communityliteracy.org Livingston and Monroe were only authorized to spend up to $10 million for the purchase of New Orleans and West Florida. [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. Brown University explains that Saint-Domingue created a tax revenue base of 1 billion livres and exported up to 170 million livres into France on an annual basis. The United States had the right, thundered the New York Evening Post, to regulate the future destiny of North America, while the Charleston Courier advocated taking possession of the port . France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800 and took possession in 1802. What we wanted to do was enrich peoples understanding of the significance of this moment, says Gail Feigenbaum, lead curator of the show. Washington University in St. Louis Press. As explained by Medium, in 1803, even before final Haitian independence, it had dawned on Napoleon that his prospects for developing an American empire were growing increasingly faint. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. She has been a regular contributor to History.com since 2017. As Napolons foreign minister, Talleyrand customarily demanded outrageous bribes for diplomatic results. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution. If we had not made this purchase, it would have pinched off the possibility of our becoming a continental power, he says. What was the most important effect of the Louisiana Purchase? For one thing, they considered it foolish to voluntarily give up an important French holding on the American continent. Why did France sell Louisiana ? - French Glimpses Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. But by April 27, he was saying that $15 million was as low as Napolon would go. LA History Chapter 8 Test Review Flashcards | Quizlet Lucien later reported in a memoirthat the pair sought out their brother in the Tuileries, where they found the ruler indulging in a bath. 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. These wars, the Napoleonic Wars, lasted from 1803 to 1815 and led, as described by the New World Encyclopedia, to a brief French dominance of Europe. France was worried Spain would take away the Caribbean. The remaining 60 million francs ($11.25 million) were financed through U.S. government bonds carrying 6% interest, redeemable between 1819 and 1822. As told by Michigan State University, both of them were shocked when the French minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, asked how much they would pay for the entire territory. We strive for accuracy and fairness. His strategy was to use Louisiana to supply the flour, salted meat, timber, and other resources necessary to support his troops on the island colony. [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. Intent on avoiding possible war with France, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris in 1803 to negotiate a settlement, with instructions to go to London to negotiate an alliance if the talks in Paris failed. [24], Henry Adams and other historians have argued that Jefferson acted hypocritically with the Louisiana Purchase, because of his position as a strict constructionist regarding the Constitution since he stretched the intent of that document to justify his purchase. France's land was mainly unexplored wilderness, and so the fertile soils and other valuable natural resources we know are present today might not have been factored in . Terms of Use The sale of Louisiana was a FIRE SALE for France, and specifically, its self-appointed ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte, for these reasons: 1) France had gotten "burned" with her earlier misadventures in North America. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi out to sea. Who was president of the U.S. at the time of the Louisiana purchase? 8 Things You May Not Know About the Louisiana Purchase - History All four started from the Mississippi River. Britain and France renewed hostilities on May 18, 1803, shortly after the deal was finalized. The Louisiana Territory was established, as described by Smithsonian Magazine, in 1682, when the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River, put up a cross and column, and declared to a group of puzzled Native Americans that the entire river basin belonged to France. Negotiations moved swiftly, and at the end of April the U.S. envoys agreed to pay $11,250,000 and assume claims of American citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports. France worried about an alliance between America and England. The confederations that are called perpetual, only last till one of the contracting parties finds it to its interest to break them, and it is to prevent the danger, to which the colossal power of England exposes us, that I would provide a remedy. However, one has to question whether the French ruler considered the consequences of selling France's interest in Louisiana. By the time Monroe arrived in Paris on April 12, the situation had, unknown to him, radically altered: Napolon had suddenly decided to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. Your Privacy Rights The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 5957. But in 1800, the region again changed hands, when Napolon negotiated the clandestine Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spains Charles IV. All Rights Reserved. The problem with Saint-Domingue was that its entire economy was supported by and depended entirely upon slavery. [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." 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. Why did France sell Louisiana so cheap? - Quora [42], Although the War of the Third Coalition, which brought France into a war with the United Kingdom, began before the purchase was completed, the British government initially allowed the deal to proceed as it was better for the neutral Americans to own the territory than the hostile French. Francis Baring's son Alexander and Pierre Labouchre from Hopes arrived in Paris in April 1803 to assist with the negotiations. In 1802 Bonaparte forced Spain to return Louisiana to France in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. Spain turned the territory over to France in a ceremony in New Orleans on November 30, a month before France turned it over to American officials. At the same time, this territorial expansion also allowed for the growth and expansion of slavery in the United States, which finally culminated in the American Civil War. The enlightened government of France saw, with just discernment, he told Congress, with typical tact, on October 17, 1803, the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best and permanently promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both. But, excited by the commercial opportunities in the West, Jefferson, even before official notice of the treaty reached him, had already dispatched Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition to explore the territory and the lands beyond.

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