why did france sell louisiana

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. Explanation: Dont worry about it sweatheart. [4] New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. 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. 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 Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon. We also show that our political and cultural relationship with France was extraordinarily rich at the time, a spirited interchange that altered the shape of the modern world.. 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. He planned on using that money to build a better army and navy. The British would have likely garrisoned New Orleans and would have occupied it for a very long time because they and their ally Spain did not recognize any treaties and land deals conducted by Napoleon since 1800, especially the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. [5], In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly upsetting Americans. Napoleon informed his brothers of the sale and asked for their opinion. Livingston replied that hewould be ready to purchase provided the sum was reduced to reasonable limits. Then he rushed home and worked until 3 a.m. writing a memorandum to Secretary of State Madison, concluding: We shall do all we can to cheapen the purchase; but my present sentiment is that we shall buy.. [48], A dispute soon arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of less than three cents an acre was among Jeffersons most notable achievements as president. All or parts of 15 Western states would eventually be carved from its nearly 830,000 square miles, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. PBS describes how by 1812, France had increased its army strength to 600,000 men, not to mention the thousands in the navy. 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. The treaty was signed by Barb-Marbois, Livingston and Monroe on May 2 and backdated to April 30. This would allow the Americans to retain clear access to the river. In addition, the DunbarHunter Expedition (18041805) explored the Ouachita River watershed. Jefferson, as a strict constructionist, was right to be concerned about staying within the bounds of the Constitution, but felt the power of these arguments and was willing to "acquiesce with satisfaction" if the Congress approved the treaty. But the focal point of the celebrations is Louisiana itself. Livingston was ordered to negotiate with French Finance Minister Barb-Marbois for the purchase of New Orleans. [24], The opposition of New England Federalists to the Louisiana Purchase was primarily economic self-interest, not any legitimate concern over constitutionality or whether France indeed owned Louisiana or was required to sell it back to Spain should it desire to dispose of the territory. 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." 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. 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. In 1762, during the French and Indian War, France ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred nearly all of its remaining North American holdings to Great Britain. What's more, as described by Medium, the French ruler believed that a more powerful United States was better for France. The French ruler was just about to embark on a series of devastating wars. 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. 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. [58] In a freedom suit that went from Missouri to the U.S. Supreme Court, slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in 1836. The press joined the fray. Why Did france sell the land Money for War France was currently engaged in a war with Britain. It was even subject to a speculative bubble which ruined fortunes. The many court cases and tribal suits in the 1930s for historical damages flowing from the Louisiana Purchase led to the Indian Claims Commission Act (ICCA) in 1946. See chapter iii, "Treaty Ceding Louisiana to the United States" (1803 ff.). Britain and France renewed hostilities on May 18, 1803, shortly after the deal was finalized. The asking price was $125 million. He engaged in back-channel diplomacy with Napoleon on Jefferson's behalf during a visit to France and originated the idea of the much larger Louisiana Purchase as a way to defuse potential conflict between the United States and Napoleon over North America.[11]. . 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. Monroe, along with the minister to France, Robert Livingston, made the inquiry. The Constitution specifically grants the president the power to negotiate treaties (Art. The favorable majority, however, easily prevailed and New England remained in the Union. In March 1802, he warned Madison that France intended to have a leading interest in the politics of our western country and was preparing to send 5,000 to 7,000 troops from its Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) to occupy New Orleans. 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. Thus, the correct answer is option A. 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. 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). 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. But in 1800, the region again changed hands, when Napolon negotiated the clandestine Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spains Charles IV. In the end, Barings and Hopes acquired the $11.25 million in bonds for just $9.44 million. [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. In response, Jefferson sent future U.S. president James Monroe to Paris to aid Livingston in the New Orleans purchase talks. [17] The signers were Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Franois Barb-Marbois. France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800 and took possession in 1802. The remaining 60 million francs ($11.25 million) were financed through U.S. government bonds carrying 6% interest, redeemable between 1819 and 1822. 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. 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. 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. Why did France sell Louisiana to the US? This could weaken Britain's war effort against France and give Napoleon victory. Napoleon was reported to have said of Louisiana in his treasury minister's memoir, "To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.". Why did France give Louisiana to Spain? Slaves were routinely terrorized in a race-based social order. France retook it in 1800 when it more or less invaded Spain. She has been a regular contributor to History.com since 2017. ", The Historic New Orleans Collection provides more nuance to the negotiations of the Louisiana Purchase. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000sqmi (2,140,000km2; 530,000,000 acres) in Middle America. He wanted Saint-Domingue and its incredibly profitable sugar and coffee plantations restored and under French control, with the old system reinstated. [47] However by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. As for France, it never seriously established a colonial presence in the Americas again. Start your free trial today. iv. 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. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. . There never was a government in which less could be done by negotiation than here, a frustrated Livingston wrote to Madison on September 1, 1802. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. [42] In the final agreement, the value of the U.S. currency was set at .mw-parser-output .sfrac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .sfrac.tion,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .tion{display:inline-block;vertical-align:-0.5em;font-size:85%;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .num,.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{display:block;line-height:1em;margin:0 0.1em}.mw-parser-output .sfrac .den{border-top:1px solid}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}5+3333/10000 francs per U.S. 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. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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). [21] The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert's Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The soldiers there were untrained and undisciplined, he lamented, and the whole colony was not worth a straw at the present time. Concluding that the area was valueless, Louis XV gave the territory to his Bourbon cousin Charles III of Spain in 1763. But by April 27, he was saying that $15 million was as low as Napolon would go. As a result, the State Department describes how the president began military preparations along the Mississippi and sent James Monroe to France with authorization to buy New Orleans and West Florida for up to $10 million. A seascapeportrays the Marquis de Lafayettes ship La Victoire setting sail to carry him across the Atlantic in 1777 to fight in the American Revolution. [34] The United States Senate advised and consented to ratification of the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to seven on October 20. [43] Hopes brought to the transaction experience with issuing sovereign bonds and Barings brought its American connections.[42]. 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]. The Louisiana Purchase is considered one America's most important and prosperous investments. It takes a certain amount of chutzpah to think you can establish a global empire, and Napoleon Bonaparte is no exception. 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. Napoleonic France Acquires Louisiana The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1699 until it was ceded to Spain in 1762. The lack of instructions and the necessity of consulting ones government are always legitimate excuses in order to obtain delays in political affairs, he once wrote. He had contacts at Britains Baring & Co. Bank, which agreed, along with several other banks, to make the actual purchase and pay Napolon cash. Napoleon no longer needed Louisiana as a supply depot for the Island of Saint-Domingue. A slaves life in Haiti was usually short and miserable. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau. France had surrendered its North American possessions at the end of the French and Indian War. The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803, (10 Floral XI in the French Republican calendar) at the Htel Tubeuf in Paris. [42] Barings had a close relationship with Hope & Co. of Amsterdam, and the two banking houses worked together to facilitate and underwrite the purchase. With the colony in danger of being lost, the territory was less useful. Felix S. Cohen, Interior Department Lawyer who helped pass ICCA, is often quoted as saying, "practically all of the real estate acquired by the United States since 1776 was purchased not from Napoleon or any other emperor or czar but from its original Indian owners", roughly estimating that Indians had received twenty times as much as France had for the territory bought by the United States, "somewhat in excess of 800 million dollars". As for the ever-succinct Thomas Jefferson, he wasted little time on rhetoric. In 1763, Louis XV gave Louisiana to his cousin, Charles III of Spain. Who was president of the U.S. at the time of the Louisiana purchase? [58] The institutionalization of slavery under U.S. law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. In 1791, the storm broke and thousands of slaves revolted. 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. Besides, we may hereafter expect rivalries among the members of the Union. I renounce Louisiana, Napolon told him. In 1718, the French established New Orleans, and scant groups of colonists moved in. Joseph A. Harriss French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle first claimed the Louisiana Territory, which he named for King Louis XIV, during a. 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 Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Haitis free black people were organizing. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and nearly doubled the size of the U.S. France wanted to sell the Louisiana Territory to raise funds for Napoleon Bonaparte's war effortsin Europe and to cut its losses in the Americas after losing its colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). [27], Spain protested the transfer on two grounds: First, France had previously promised in a note not to alienate Louisiana to a third party and second, France had not fulfilled the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso by having the King of Etruria recognized by all European powers. [citation needed], After the early explorations, the U.S. government sought to establish control of the region, since trade along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was still dominated by British and French traders from Canada and allied Indians, especially the Sauk and Fox. [14][15] The total of $15million is equivalent to about $337million in 2021 dollars, or 64 cents per acre. New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi were transferred to Spain in 1762, and French territories east of the Mississippi, including Canada, were ceded to Britain the next year. (Livingston) Napoleon intended to gain money by selling Louisiana. 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. 3 Reply frenchchevalierblanc 5 yr. ago France had lost Louisiana in the 1760s to Spain. On March 9 and 10, 1804, another ceremony, commemorated as Three Flags Day, was conducted in St. Louis, to transfer ownership of Upper Louisiana from Spain to France, and then from France to the United States. Aside from the strategic reasons, the United States was the best market to sell the Louisiana Territory. The Boston Columbian Centinel editorialized, We are to give money of which we have too little for land of which we already have too much. And Congressman Joseph Quincy of Massachusetts so opposed the deal that he favored secession by the Northeastern states, amicably if they can; violently if they must.. Everybody who has taken grade-school history knows the story. From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank., It wasnt until July 3 that news of the purchase reached U.S. shores, just in time for Americans to celebrate it on Independence Day. Cookie Policy As a result, Thomas Jefferson instructed James Monroe and Robert Livingston to purchase New Orleans in 1802. 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), ordered to negotiate with French Finance Minister Barb-Marbois, https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/louisiana-purchase. 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. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States. A mahogany and gilded bronze swan bed that belonged to the famous French beauty Juliette Rcamier is also on display. 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. All these soldiers needed to be fed, housed, and paid. [1][2], Domestic opposition and constitutionality, Formal transfers and initial organization. [37][38], Effective October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Territory of Orleans (most of which would become the state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under control of the governor and judicial system of the Indiana Territory. He stood up and then splashed back down into the water so heavily that his brothers got soaked. As part of the deal, the U.S. assumed responsibility for 20 million francs ($3.75 million) of French debts owed to U.S. citizens. 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. The French and Indian war cost her Canada and all of her other possessions on the east bank of the Mississippi. France wanted to end Louvertre's rule and reinstate slavery. The superpower had built a vast network of colonies in the Americas, capitalizing on European tastes for coffee, indigo and other commodities. [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. . 'Sale of Louisiana') was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. France regained sovereignty of the western territory in the secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso . 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 jewel of the French overseas empire was Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean, which is today's Haiti on the large island of Hispaniola. Even in 1803, that was dirt cheap. Though the Americans then countered with $12.7 million, the deal was struck for $15 million on April 29. 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. Plenty of sunshine. He could not or did not see the value in sending troops to defend worthless Louisiana, not with Saint-Domingue out of the equation. 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. Napoleon wanted its revenues and productivity for France restored. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution. In financial straits at the time, Monroe sold his china and furniture to raise travel funds, asked a neighbor to manage his properties, and sailed for France on March 8, 1803, with Jeffersons parting admonition ringing in his ears: The future destinies of this republic depended on his success. On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barb-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15million,[13] which averages to less than three cents per acre (7/ha).

Marianne Nestor Cassini 2021, Articles W