why did france sell louisiana

A mahogany and gilded bronze swan bed that belonged to the famous French beauty Juliette Rcamier is also on display. Thomas Jefferson Browman, David L (2018). What were some of the benefits of the Louisiana Purchase quizlet [citation needed]. Regardless of its legality, Smithsonian Magazine details how in order to finance the transaction, several British banks actually bought the territory and turned it over to the United States in exchange for bonds at 6% interest. [3] The western borders of the purchase were later settled by the 1819 AdamsOns Treaty with Spain, while the northern borders of the purchase were adjusted by the Treaty of 1818 with Britain. While this strategy was successful at first, by 1803, disease and heavy casualties forced the French to withdraw. So many slaves died of yellow feverand ill treatment that the entire slave population turned overevery 20 years, and slaves were held in subjugation through a strict caste system. The treaty was dated April 30 and signed on May 2. He had always seen Saint Domingue, with a population of more than 500,000, producing enough sugar, coffee, indigo, cotton and cocoa to fill some 700 ships a year, as Frances most important holding in the Western Hemisphere. 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. 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. [61], During the War of 1812, Great Britain hoped to annex all or at least portions of the Louisiana Purchase should they successfully defeat the U.S. Aided by their Indian allies, the British defeated U.S. forces in the Upper Mississippi; the U.S. abandoned Forts Osage and Madison, as well as several other U.S. forts built during the war, including Fort Johnson and Fort Shelby. In legislation enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule and authorized the President to use military forces to maintain order. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. Why did France give Louisiana to Spain? If we had not made this purchase, it would have pinched off the possibility of our becoming a continental power, he says. Advertising Notice 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 French government replied that these objections were baseless since the promise not to alienate Louisiana was not in the treaty of San Ildefonso itself and therefore had no legal force, and the Spanish government had ordered Louisiana to be transferred in October 1802 despite knowing for months that Britain had not recognized the King of Etruria in the Treaty of Amiens. In 1718, the French established New Orleans, and scant groups of colonists moved in. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory - Brainly But though the victory eliminated slavery in Haiti, slavery increased in the country that purchased the land Haiti had spooked France into selling. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, reshaping the environmental and economic makeup of the country. 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. France had surrendered its North American possessions at the end of the French and Indian War. Southern Quarterlynotes, "What is often remembered as a remarkably 'peaceful' transfer of land was in fact predicated on events of enormous violence that took place in the Caribbean.". Pinckney's Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, gave American merchants "right of deposit" in New Orleans, granting them use of the port to store goods for export. Privacy Statement 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. 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. They wanted the U.S. government to establish laws allowing slavery in the newly acquired territory so they could be supported in taking their slaves there to undertake new agricultural enterprises, as well as to reduce the threat of future slave rebellions. The Louisiana Purchase was the latter, a treaty. Louisiana Purchase - Wikipedia 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. All Rights Reserved. [30], Other historians counter the above arguments regarding Jefferson's alleged hypocrisy by asserting that countries change their borders in two ways: (1) conquest, or (2) an agreement between nations, otherwise known as a treaty. A picturesque assemblage of French and Spanish colonial architecture and Creole cottages, New Orleans boasted a thriving economy based largely on agricultural exports. Selling the Louisiana territory gave Napoleon a significant windfall from a territory he was probably going to lose anyway. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. [46], Because Napoleon wanted to receive his money as quickly as possible, Barings and Hopes purchased the bonds for 52 million francs, agreeing to an initial 6 million franc payment upon issuance of the bonds followed by 23 monthly payments of 2 million francs each. are incalculable, warned the U.S. vice-consul in New Orleans, Williams E. Hulings, in a dispatch to Secretary of State James Madison. The remaining 60 million francs ($11.25 million) were financed through U.S. government bonds carrying 6% interest, redeemable between 1819 and 1822. [18] After the signing Livingston famously stated, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? Laussat, standing on the balcony of the town hall, burst into tears. Francis Baring's son Alexander and Pierre Labouchre from Hopes arrived in Paris in April 1803 to assist with the negotiations. It was all in a days work at the New Orleans, Louisiana slavemarket, the largest and most lucrative in the pre-Civil War United States. Then, too, Napolon was gearing up for another campaign against Britain and needed funds for that. He wanted Saint-Domingue and its incredibly profitable sugar and coffee plantations restored and under French control, with the old system reinstated. This left Laussat with little to do but officiate when, on a sunny December 20, 1803, the French tricolor was slowly lowered in New Orleans main square, the PlacedArmes, and the American flag was raised. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and nearly doubled the size of the U.S. Alarmed over the French actions and its intention to re-establish an empire in North America, Jefferson declared neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to the French, but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France from regaining a foothold. SIGNED Roughneck Daddy: A Memoir by Donna F. Orchard, Paperback - eBay 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. 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 . And he saw the Mississippi River not as the western edge of the country, but as the great spine that would hold the continent together., As it was, frontiersmen, infuriated by the abrogation of the right of deposit of their goods, threatened to seize New Orleans by force. The enlightened government of France saw, with just discernment, he told Congress, with typical tact, on October 17, 1803, the importance to both nations of such liberal arrangements as might best and permanently promote the peace, friendship, and interests of both. But, excited by the commercial opportunities in the West, Jefferson, even before official notice of the treaty reached him, had already dispatched Meriwether Lewis to lead an expedition to explore the territory and the lands beyond. 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). 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. Manifest destiny was in full effect. 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. [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. 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. There was also concern that an increase in the number of slave-holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between North and South. But if it werent for a slave rebellion, Louisiana wouldnt be part of the United States at all. This deal between the United States and France sold over 500 million acres at a bargain price of fewer than . The superpower had built a vast network of colonies in the Americas, capitalizing on European tastes for coffee, indigo and other commodities. Why France Sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. The Louisiana Purchase extended United States sovereignty across the Mississippi River, nearly doubling the nominal size of the country. 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. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory? As the lands were being gradually settled by American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired "piece by piece." National Geographicpoints out that in modern dollars, the Louisiana Purchase would have cost $342 million. However, as Slate Magazine describes, the United States did not so much buy the land but rather the imperial rights to conquer it and take it from the Native Americans who'd lived there for millennia. The Louisiana Purchase was the start of the United States' incredible expansion from a group of Eastern Seaboard states on the North American continent. 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. [14][15] The total of $15million is equivalent to about $337million in 2021 dollars, or 64 cents per acre. Why did France sell Louisiana? Thus, the correct answer is option A. When the United States found out that instead of Spain as their neighbor, it was to be France under Napoleon with imperial ambitions, the Americans feared that their access to the Mississippi would be cut off. (Louisiana Shaping) They lost a lot of resources due to previous losses in other areas of the world. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began preparing to invade Great Britain. [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. As a result, Thomas Jefferson instructed James Monroe and Robert Livingston to purchase New Orleans in 1802. [56] The maps and journals of the explorers helped to define the boundaries during the negotiations leading to the AdamsOns Treaty, which set the western boundary as follows: north up the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to its intersection with the 32nd parallel, due north to the Red River, up the Red River to the 100th meridian, north to the Arkansas River, up the Arkansas River to its headwaters, due north to the 42nd parallel and due west to its previous boundary. 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. The most ambitious event opens this month at the New Orleans Museum of Art. At this, Barb-Marbois pretended Napolon had lost interest. Napoleon was reported to have said of Louisiana in his treasury minister's memoir, "To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.". Gentlemen, he announced, think what you please about it. As discussed in the Journal of Economic History, France had a historically bad reputation for credit and finance due to the upheavals of the French Revolution. The press joined the fray. 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. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States. Beginning in the 17th century, France explored the Mississippi River valley and established scattered settlements in the region. Though the Americans then countered with $12.7 million, the deal was struck for $15 million on April 29. Monroe, along with the minister to France, Robert Livingston, made the inquiry. Why did France agree to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States? Because of this favored position, the U.S. asked Barings to handle the transaction. On January 1, 1804, Haiti declared its independence. Reports of the retrocession caused considerable unease in the United States. 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.

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