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The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803 for fifteen million dollars, covering 828,000 square miles. This purchase was driven by President Thomas Jefferson's desire to control the Mississippi River port of New Orleans and was facilitated by U.S. negotiators James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston. Despite initial opposition, Congress ratified the purchase, granting the U.S. preemptive rights to acquire lands inhabited by Native Americans.

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Colo 2

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803 for fifteen million dollars, covering 828,000 square miles. This purchase was driven by President Thomas Jefferson's desire to control the Mississippi River port of New Orleans and was facilitated by U.S. negotiators James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston. Despite initial opposition, Congress ratified the purchase, granting the U.S. preemptive rights to acquire lands inhabited by Native Americans.

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The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane, lit.

'Sale of Louisiana') was


the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First
Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River's
drainage basin west of the river.[1] In return for fifteen million dollars,[a] or
approximately eighteen dollars per square mile[b] ($7/km2), the United States
nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi (2,140,000 km2; 530,000,000 acres) now
in the Central United States. 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.[2][3]

The Kingdom of France had controlled the Louisiana territory from 1682[4] until it was
ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of the French
Republic, regained ownership of Louisiana in exchange for territories in Tuscany as
part of a broader effort to re-establish a French colonial empire in North America.
However, France's failure to suppress a revolt in Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean,
coupled with the prospect of renewed warfare with the United Kingdom, prompted
Napoleon to consider selling Louisiana to the United States. Acquisition of Louisiana
was a long-term goal of President Thomas Jefferson, who was especially eager to
gain control of the crucial Mississippi River port of New Orleans. Jefferson
tasked James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston with purchasing New Orleans.
Negotiating with French Treasury Minister François Barbé-Marbois, the U.S.
representatives quickly agreed to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana after it
was offered. Overcoming the opposition of the Federalist Party, Jefferson and
Secretary of State James Madison persuaded Congress to ratify and fund the
Louisiana Purchase.

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