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. This made it difficult, when compared to Britain, to obtain the necessary money to wage large-scale wars. In need of funds, Napoleon pressed the banks to complete their purchase of the bonds as quickly as possible, and by April 1804 the banks transferred an additional 40.35 million francs to fully discharge their obligations to France. [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. 2), which is just what Jefferson did. 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. [58] The institutionalization of slavery under U.S. law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. Furthermore, the Spanish prime minister had authorized the U.S. to negotiate with the French government "the acquisition of territories which may suit their interests." So while a slave rebellion helped drive the Louisiana Purchase, the new territory was destined to become a place of suffering and exploitation for the thousands of slaves forced to work there. U.S. ownership of the whole Louisiana Purchase region was confirmed in the Treaty of Ghent (ratified in February 1815) and guaranteed on the battlefield at the decisive Battle of New Orleans when the British sent over 10,000 of the best British Army soldiers to try to take New Orleans in a 5 month long campaign starting from September 1814 (First Battle of Fort Bowyer) to February 1815 (Second Battle of Fort Bowyer). 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. Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. Negotiating with French Treasury Minister Franois Barb-Marbois, the American representatives quickly agreed to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana after it was offered. A group of Northern Federalists led by Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts went so far as to explore the idea of a separate northern confederacy. With the colony in danger of being lost, the territory was less useful. Advertising Notice 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. [5], Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. According to the Library of Congress, Napoleon did not have enough troops to occupy Louisiana while simultaneously subduing Saint-Domingue. All the way to the Pacific. In a letter to U.S. minister to France Robert Livingston, President Thomas Jefferson stated, The day that France takes possession of New Orleanswe must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.. Lucien said that the legislative chambers of the French government would not approve it, to which Napoleon replied that he would do it without their consent. 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. 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. (Louisiana Shaping) Fashion-conscious American ladies reportedly imitated Rcamiers attire, but not her custom of receiving visitors in her bedroom. The U.S. claimed the land as far as the Perdido River, and Spain claimed that the border of its Florida Colony remained the Mississippi River. He could not or did not see the value in sending troops to defend worthless Louisiana, not with Saint-Domingue out of the equation. It was the first and only time that a slave revolt had seen such success, and this epochal event in San-Domingue is linked with the Louisiana Purchase. By April 30, 1803, they hashed out an agreement where the Americans would pay $15 million, a considerable reduction, although its constitutionality was debated. The superpower had built a vast network of colonies in the Americas, capitalizing on European tastes for coffee, indigo and other commodities. According to the memoirs of Franois Barb-Marbois, in what was a prophetic statement foreshadowing the American Civil War, Napoleon said, "Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. Thomas Jefferson As Jefferson had written in April 1802 to the U.S. minister in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, it was crucial that the port of New Orleans remain open and free for American commerce, particularly the goods coming down the Mississippi River. The asking price was $125 million. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. That same month Jefferson asked James Monroe, a former member of Congress and former governor of Virginia, to join Livingston in Paris as minister extraordinary with discretionary powers to spend $9,375,000 to secure New Orleans and parts of the Floridas (to consolidate the U.S. position in the southeastern part of the continent). 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. While the transfer of the territory by Spain back to France in 1800 went largely unnoticed, fear of an eventual French invasion spread across America when, in 1801, Napoleon sent a military force to secure New Orleans. [32] The Senate quickly ratified the treaty, and the House, with equal readiness, authorized the required funding, as the Constitution specifies. And St. Domingue, which is now known as Haiti, was one of the great sugar capitals of the world. On April 30, 1803, France ceded Louisiana to the Americans for 15 million dollars.A sum that will serve Bonaparte's European military projects, in exchange for a territory covering nearly a quarter of the current surface of the United States.Before Louisiana was sold to the United States, it had already been ceded once to Spain. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The treaty was dated April 30 and signed on May 2. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear. Free shipping for many products! France turned over New Orleans, the historic colonial capital, on December 20, 1803, at the Cabildo, with a flag-raising ceremony in the Plaza de Armas, now Jackson Square. Considering France was on one different continent and that Louisiana Territory was on another continent, owning that territory would seem less important to what's currently . A manservant slumped to the floor in a faint. The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 5957. The treaty called for the return of the vast territory to France in exchange for the small kingdom of Etruria in northern Italy, which Charles wanted for his daughter Louisetta. Meanwhile, Haitis free black people were organizing. Browman, David L (2018). The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. The scene caused a servant to faint, and when Lucien lingered to try to argue the point, Napoleon said to his brother that if he opposed him he would break him like a snuffbox which he smashed into the floor. [citation needed]. [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. What was known at the time as the Louisiana Territory stretched from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian border in the north. How was the Louisiana Territory acquired? 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. The Louisiana Purchase, made 200 years ago this month, nearly doubled the size of the United States. II, Sec. Why did . But in early 1803, continuing war between France and Britain seemed unavoidable. 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. As a result, Thomas Jefferson instructed James Monroe and Robert Livingston to purchase New Orleans in 1802. 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. A full 40 percentof Britain and Frances sugar, and 60 percent of its coffee, was produced in Haiti, and the lucrative market lent itself to a particularly brutal slave trade. [citation needed], In Saint-Domingue, Leclerc's forces took Louverture prisoner, but their expedition soon faltered in the face of fierce resistance and disease. Bruce Kauffmann is a historian, syndicated columnist, author, and speaker. Despite a clubfoot and what contemporaries called his dead eyes, he could be charming and witty when he wantedwhich helped camouflage his basic negotiating tactic of delay. The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 530,000,000 acres of territory in North America . The idea was taken up by lawmakers such as Senator James Ross of Pennsylvania, who drafted a resolution calling on Jefferson to form a 50,000-man army to take the city. Claiborne and Gen. James Wilkinson, the new commissioners of the territory, officially took possession of it in the name of the United States, assuring all residents that their property, rights and religion would be respected, celebratory salvos boomed from the forts around the city. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. All these soldiers needed to be fed, housed, and paid. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. [48], A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the French colony of Louisiana became a pawn for European political intrigue. This created an unstable situation at the western border which could draw his young country into the Napoleonic Wars. For another, Britain had unofficially offered Joseph a bribe of 100,000 to persuade Napolon not to let the Americans have Louisiana. The French and Indian war cost her Canada and all of her other possessions on the east bank of the Mississippi. High around 75F. 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. France was worried Spain would take away the Caribbean. 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. Livingston was ordered to negotiate with French Finance Minister Barb-Marbois for the purchase of New Orleans. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, reshaping the environmental and economic makeup of the country. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory? Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. Its European peoples, of ethnic French, Spanish and Mexican descent, were largely Catholic; in addition, there was a large population of enslaved Africans made up of a high proportion of recent arrivals, as Spain had continued the transatlantic slave trade. In 1796, Spain allied itself with France, leading Britain to use its powerful navy to cut off Spain from America. According to the University of Kentucky, slaves outnumbered free people at least 10 to 1. It hangs not far from a color engraving of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, which was composed in 1789 by Lafayette with the advice of his American friend Thomas Jefferson. But the focal point of the celebrations is Louisiana itself. [33] The fledgling United States did not have $15 million in its treasury; it borrowed the sum from Great Britain, at an annual interest rate of six percent. The final price after the 15-year bonds were paid was $27 million, still a very good deal for the United States, and not really a bad one for Napoleon, considering the pressure he was under to dump the territory. But Napolons mind was already made up. Americans cried Huzzah! and waved their hats, while French and Spanish residents sulked in glum silence. 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. It took until 1820 for them to agree on theMissouri Compromise, which drew an imaginary line across the new territory that separated free and slave areas. This was particularly true in the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, which also contained a large number of free people of color. None of these held a candle, though, to sugar, which dominated French colonial holdings. Advertisement Advertisement mira11111 mira11111 Answer: he needed money for the French War. (There is also a portrait of the marquis himself and a 1784 painting by French artist Jean Suau, Allegory of France Liberating America.) [55], Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize four missions to explore and map the new territory. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, which had become vital to the growing trade of the western territories. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. When Jefferson heard rumors of Napolons secret deal, he immediately saw the threat to Americas Western settlements and its vital outlet to the Gulf of Mexico. [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). Why did France leave Louisiana? He planned on using that money to build a better army and navy. Cookie Policy Louisiana under Spanish control fared little better. Her work has appeared in outlets like The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, TIME, Smithsonian and more. The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. [5], In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly upsetting Americans. This was coupled with the importation of enslaved Africans. To their surprise, France offered to sell them the entire territory of Louisiana instead. First, an empowered United States could effectively act as a formidable rival to Britain. The Louisiana Purchase was the start of the United States' incredible expansion from a group of Eastern Seaboard states on the North American continent. WATCH: Full episodes of The American Presidency with Bill Clinton online now. On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence. Behind the scenes, he plotted to take the island back over and reinstitute slavery. Meanwhile, Louisiana, which also became a state after the purchase, remained a slave state, and New Orleans remained a critical hub of the slave trade. France needed money to finance wars. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. How did the French Own Louisiana? [4] The colony was the most substantial presence of France's overseas empire, with other possessions consisting of a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. 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. by force of arms. As Secretary of State James Madison explained, The Mississippi is to them everything. 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. Napoleon saw in the sale of Louisiana something he needed more than anything else cold, hard cash. [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. To France, it was a backwater sort of like owning Mediterranean Avenue in Monopoly. 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. Morales proclamation meant that American merchandise could no longer be stored in New Orleans warehouses. I have decided to sell Louisiana to the Americans. To make his point to his astonished brothers, Napolon abruptly stood up, then dropped back into the tub, drenching Joseph. By the middle of the 18th century, France controlled more of the present-day United States than any other European power: from New Orleans northeast to the Great Lakes and northwest to modern-day Montana. In 1791, the storm broke and thousands of slaves revolted. ", The Historic New Orleans Collection provides more nuance to the negotiations of the Louisiana Purchase. When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history. [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. 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. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. [42] Barings had a close relationship with Hope & Co. of Amsterdam, and the two banking houses worked together to facilitate and underwrite the purchase. 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. As the lands were being gradually settled by American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired "piece by piece." The bank then turned over ownership of the Louisiana Territory to the United States in return for bonds, which were repaid over 15 years at 6 percent interest, making the final purchase price around $27 million. Saint-Domingue was a powder keg, ready to explode. When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history Joseph A. Harriss April 2003 The Louisiana Purchase nearly. The Louisiana Territory, in Napolons view, was useful mainly as a granary for Saint Domingue. Would that make the United States too powerful? In 1718, French explorer Jean-Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founded a settlement near the site of La Salles proclamation, and named it la Nouvelle Orlans for Philippe, Duke of Orlans and Regent of France. A mahogany and gilded bronze swan bed that belonged to the famous French beauty Juliette Rcamier is also on display. . Feb 14, 2023 - France sold the Louisiana Territory in 1803 because it was ruled by Napoleon and needed money in order to fight the British. As a result, while the territory of Louisiana was technically very large, it had hardly been touched by the Europeans, with the exception of the areas along the lower Mississippi River. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi out to sea. He probably concluded that, following American independence, France couldnt hope to maintain a colony on the American continent, says Jean Tulard, one of Frances foremost Napolon scholars. 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. The Louisiana Purchase extended United States sovereignty across the Mississippi River, nearly doubling the nominal size of the country.
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