Louisiana Purchase
Jefferson would have been content just to buy the port of New Orleans so the United States— not Spain, not France, certainly not Great Britain— could control the gateway to the Mississippi River, the main street of commerce in what was then the American West.
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
Napoleon losing interest in establishing a North American empire and needed funds to fight the British, so he directed his emissaries to offer not just New Orleans but all of the Louisiana Territory to the Americans.
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
The Louisiana Purchase was as quick in the making as it was historic in its impact
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
The United States of America would grow beyond the Mississippi River and include the rich forests, vast plains, and craggy mountains that would one day yield the vital resources to make it the most powerful and most prosperous nation on earth
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
involved more than a year's worth of delicate negotiations to work out the approval of the treaty by Congress, the raising of funds to finance the purchase, and the transfer of documents that completed the deal.
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/spring/louisiana-purchase.html
France was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 1802 Spanish authorities, apparently acting under French orders, revoked a U.S.-Spanish treaty that granted Americans the right to store goods in New Orleans.
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
Jefferson sent future U.S. president James Monroe (1758-1831) to Paris to aid Livingston in the New Orleans purchase talks. In mid-April 1803, shortly before Monroe's arrival, the French asked a surprised Livingston if the United States was interested in purchasing all of Louisiana Territory. It is 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, and financial difficulties may all have prompted Napoleon to offer Louisiana for sale to the United States.
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
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.
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of less than three cents an acre was among Jefferson's most notable achievements as president. American expansion westward into the new lands began immediately, and in 1804 a territorial government was established. On April 30, 1812, exactly nine years after the Louisiana Purchase agreement was made, the first state to be carved from the territory-Louisiana-was admitted into the Union as the 18th U.S. state.Louisiana Purchase Doubles U.S. Thomas Jefferson pulls off the land deal of the millennium when he buys 800,000 square miles from the French, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
The treaty was dated April 30 and signed on May 2. In October, the U.S. Senate ratified the purchase, and in December 1803 France transferred authority over the region to the United States.
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic.
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
the United States acquired the vast domain of Louisiana Territory, some 828,000 square miles of land
http://www.history.com/topics/louisiana-purchase
The United States initially wanted to buy only New Orleans and the land around it. The purchase met with the strong opposition in the States on account of being unconstitutional. Those accusations were accurate, at least to some extent. President Jefferson couldn't deny that the Constitution of the United States did not provide for acquiring new territories but still he decided to proceed with the purchase since the removal of French presence in the region was such an important issue.
http://www.historynet.com/louisiana-purchase
Although President Thomas Jefferson was a strict interpreter of the Constitution who wondered if the U.S. Government was authorized to acquire new territory, he was also a visionary who dreamed of an "empire for liberty" that would stretch across the entire continent. As Napoleon threatened to take back the offer, Jefferson squelched whatever doubts he had and prepared to occupy a land of unimaginable riches.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=18
Robert Livingston and James Monroe closed on the sweetest real estate deal of the millennium when they signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty in Paris on April 30, 1803. They were authorized to pay France up to $10 million for the port of New Orleans and the Floridas. When offered the entire territory of Louisiana—an area larger than Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal combined—the American negotiators swiftly agreed to a price of $15 million.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=18
French wanted: The French had long been plagued by wars that had become very costly. Their financial situation was in a wreck and Napoleon Bonaparte realized that opportunity was fading in the New World. His attempts at maintaining the territories in the Caribbean were failing and he wanted a presence in the West for the lucrative sugar trade. After his failed attempts at maintaining order there, he decided that keeping all the territory in North America simply wasn't worth the trouble.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/66/ten-facts-about-the-louisiana-purchase/
The American government made a down payment on the land in gold totaling $3 million. The rest was financed in bonds by some of the most important banks in Europe at the time and then France cashed the bonds to use the money to pay debts.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/66/ten-facts-about-the-louisiana-purchase/
The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbà Marbois in Paris on April 30, 1803. Thomas Jefferson announced the treaty to the American people on July 4th of that year. It was stated that the Louisiana Purchase was a noble work and that the U.S. could now take its place among the powers of the first rank.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/66/ten-facts-about-the-louisiana-purchase/
The land that was bought enclosed all of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and of course Louisiana. The land purchased also included parts of what is now Alberta and Saskachewan in Canada. The land that was purchased in the Louisiana Purchase now makes up about 23% of the territory of the United States.
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/66/ten-facts-about-the-louisiana-purchase/
US wanted: The U.S. understood the importance of the port of New Orleans and had already made previous negotiations to use the port and not be harassed there. The desire of the U.S. was to purchase the port outright so that they could control this very important marketplace. The U.S. went to Paris to negotiate the purchase of the port of New Orleans but was unsuccessful the first time
http://www.surfnetkids.com/go/66/ten-facts-about-the-louisiana-purchase/
