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The Louisiana Purchase
After the Revolutionary War, Americans started to move “west.” To the people
of that time period, this meant going west of the Appalachians. The Mississippi
River was the western boundary of the United States. Spain controlled the
land on the other side of the river in the late 1700s. Some Americans crossed
the river anyway and began living and working there, which bothered Spain. The
Spanish did not have the money or army in North America to stop new settlers
and thought that eventually America may take over the western lands if enough
settlers were allowed to stay.
The Mississippi River was also controlled by Spain and was a major
transportation route for the farmers and traders living in that part of the
country. Many major rivers, such as the Tennessee, the Ohio, and the Missouri
ran into the Mississippi. Products were loaded on boats and brought down the
rivers to the Mississippi River and on to the port of New Orleans. There, larger
boats would be waiting to venture into the Gulf of Mexico and onward to the
Atlantic trade routes. When Spain began fearing an
American take over, they closed the port of New Orleans,
stopping trade completely. Then, in 1800, Spain negotiated a
deal with France, giving the land west of the Mississippi and
control of the port of New Orleans to the French. This
scared the American farmers because Napoleon, the French
ruler, was powerful and could stop the westward movement
and trade of American settlers.
Napoleon had conquered most of Europe at this time and
had control of Santa Domingue (now Haiti) in the
Caribbean, also. This island was run by plantation lords
who used black slave labor to grow sugar cane. Cane was
processed into molasses and rum, very profitable exports
for France. Napoleon thought the new land west of the
Mississippi would be good for growing food to feed these
slaves. What he did not anticipate was a rebellion by the
slaves. Busy fighting in Europe, the French could not stop
the uprising in the Caribbean. In 1802 the blacks gained their independence
from France. Napoleon no longer needed the land in North America. What he
needed was money to continue his fighting of the British in Europe.
This was a very fortunate turn of events for America. Thomas
Jefferson was president of the U.S. and knew the French well,
having lived there for years as an American ambassador. He
saw an opportunity to get control of the port of New Orleans
and sent an ambassador with an offer to buy it. Napoleon
instead offered to sell all of the land he controlled west of the Mississippi, an
area called “Louisiana,” including the whole Mississippi River and the port of
New Orleans. His asking price was $15 million, or just about three cents per
acre. It was the deal of the century and Jefferson knew it.
However, there was a problem. The Constitution did not say anything about
allowing the purchase of foreign lands with public money. Jefferson was very
strict in his own interpretation of the Constitution and would have to go against
a personal belief in order to allow this deal to happen. He asked, “Was this
purchase unconstitutional?” After some debate and with the approval of
Congress, the Louisiana Purchase was made in 1803, doubling the size of the
United States of America. The land of Louisiana was largely unexplored; some
believed it would be a desert wasteland. Jefferson hoped it would be a
treasure and immediately arranged for a “Corps of Discovery” to go exploring.
At the very least, the U.S.A. had control of the Mississippi and trade resumed,
bringing adventuresome Americans into the agricultural heartland that today we
call, “the bread basket of the world.”