1. The Louisiana Purchase
The Greatest Land Deal
in the History of the United States!

2. Where Was the Original Louisiana Territory?

3. Who Claimed the Louisiana Territory?
Native Americans
French
British
Spanish
Americans

4. Mississippi mound builders
Native Americans
14,000 years ago — Native Americans began to occupy the lower Mississippi Valley.
Mississippi mound builders

5. French
1682 — French explorers claimed the entire Mississippi River drainage and named it for King Louis V.
1722 — New Orleans, established by a private French trading company for the shipment of exports from the Mississippi Valley, mainly furs, tobacco, and indigo, became the capitol of the Territory.
New Orleans

6. France held claim for 80 years.
Shape Shifting
France held claim for 80 years.

7. British
1763 — In the Treaty of Paris, which concluded the Seven Years' War (known as the "French and Indian War" in North America), major land exchanges are made. All of Louisiana east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans, goes to Britain.
New Orleans and all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi goes to Spain.
SPANISH
WEST
BRITISH
EAST
LOUISIANA .
Mississippi River
New Orleans

8. West of the Mississippi
Spanish
West of the Mississippi
East of the Mississippi
1783 — Following the American War of Independence, Britain cedes its old Louisiana Territory land east of the Mississippi, to the United States, and gives Florida back to Spain.
U.S.
Mississippi R.
SPANISH
New Orleans
and
Florida

9. Spain held claim for 38 years.
Shape Shifting
Spain held claim for 38 years.

10. Si! si! America may use my beautiful port. Charles IV, King of Spain
Spanish New Orleans
1795 — Charles Pinckney, U.S. Minister to Spain, negotiates an agreement with Spain allowing Americans to use New Orleans as a duty-free port for foreign commerce, for renewable three-year periods.
Si! si! America may use my beautiful port.
Charles IV, King of Spain

11. Napoleon and the Mosquitoes
O K Guys, I’m taking over!
That’s what you think!
Napoleon, an aggressive, ambitious military genius.
Mosquito, an aggressive, yellow-fever-carrying insect.

12. Why Does Napoleon Want Louisiana?
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte has a vision of a renewed western empire for France.
Control over the vast Louisiana Territory would halt the westward expansion of the young United States and would supply French colonies in the West Indies with the goods they needed.

13. Napoleon’s Scheme
I LOVE power!
His scheme includes the recapture of Louisiana from a very weak Spain.
Napoleon takes a break from his conquests in Europe to send French troops to the West Indies.

14. First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte
The BIG Secret
Oui,
Charlie. For dis, I weel geeve your son-in-law a leetle Italian kingdom.
1800 — Secretly, under pressure from Napoleon Bonaparte, King Charles IV of Spain, gives ALL of Louisiana, including New Orleans, back to France, on condition that it not be sold or given to any other country.
Weak Spain and strong France secretly sign the Treaty of San Idelfonso.
First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte

15. France held claim for 3 years.
Shape Shifting
France held claim for 3 years.

16. Meanwhile….back in the U.S.A.
Thomas Jefferson
Meanwhile….back in the U.S.A.

17. 1801
Mississippi River
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, two out of every three Americans lived within fifty miles of the Atlantic Ocean.
Only four crude roads crossed the Allegheny Mountains.
The U.S. ended on the eastern banks of the Mississippi River.
Florida was governed by Spain
Allegheny Mountains
Ohio River
Spanish
Florida

18. Western U.S. Territories
Out West, we frontiersmen have our own agenda.
APPALACHIAN MTS.
The half-million Americans (one out of 10) who already lived west of the Appalachian Mountains felt they had found their own “national” interests.
Ha! Ha!
In the East, we have all the good ports

19. Western U.S. Territories
Many people along the Mississippi viewed themselves as the seeds of an independent nation that would tap into the world marketplace, not by going east to the Atlantic seaboard, but by following the Ohio and Mississippi river system down to the Gulf of Mexico.

20. Jefferson’s Plan
Jefferson knew the inhabitants of this region posed a risk of secession from the United States. After all, the nation, only 18 years old, was born of rebellion.
He was determined to obtain the vital trading port of New Orleans for the United States, in part to prevent the West from breaking away.
Port of New Orleans (1870)

21. The Secret is Discovered
Jefferson just wants a little port.
1801 — President Thomas Jefferson is shocked when he learns the secret Treaty of San Idelfonso.
Considering strong French control over New Orleans to be a serious threat, he instructs his Minister to France in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, to try to buy New Orleans and Florida, or at least western Florida.
Robert Livingston, Minister to France

22. Jefferson Stands Up to Napoleon
Also, Jefferson let it be known that the U.S would ally itself with England and fight France if the French start a war on the continent.
The French decline to sell New Orleans or western Florida.
I weel have it all!!
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

23. Toussaint L’Overture
Florida
The
West
Indies
Haiti
Two years later…the French army off the coast of Florida in the West Indies is having some problems.

24. Napoleon’s Plan Collapses
I LOVE power!
1803- Napoleon's plan collapses when his Caribbean army is defeated by yellow fever carrying mosquitoes and a brilliant black general named Toussaint L’Overture who has been leading a slave revolt on French Haiti for 12 years.
General Toussaint L’Overture

25. The Best-Laid Plans…
I hate mosquitoes!
The remaining French troops are forced to return to France defeated. Thus preventing them from reaching their ultimate destination--Louisiana--and from being able to defend it.
As Napoleon's New World empire disintegrates, the loss of French Haiti makes Louisiana unnecessary.

26. What Jefferson Wanted
I just want a little port near the Mississippi River.

27. James Monroe, Minister to Spain and France
You can count on me to secure the deal, Mr. President.
Jefferson Persists
President Jefferson, learning that the defeated French might be willing to consider selling some land after all, sends Monroe to Paris with instructions from Secretary of State, James Madison, to buy a small piece of land.
Congress appropriates $2 million.
James Monroe, Minister to Spain and France

28. The French Reply
$2 million?
No deal!
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the French Minister of Foreign Relations, declines the offer.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the French Minister of Foreign Relations

29. You may have zee whole territory. I’m going home.
The BIG Surprise!
You may have zee whole territory. I’m going home.
Needing money to prosecute his campaigns elsewhere on the globe, Napoleon changes his mind and decides to offer to sell ALL of Louisiana, (including New Orleans) to the United States.

30. Let’s Make A Deal
Robert Livingston is prepared to pay only $2 million for a PORT such as New Orleans.
Talleyrand says Louisiana would be worthless to France without the port city, and asks Livingston to make an offer.
Louisiana Purchase negotiations

31. Jefferson Acts Quickly
I will stretch my presidential power ‘till it cracks!
Although there are no provisions in the Constitution for buying territories, Jefferson, a Republican, has Congress appropriate $10 million.
The Federalist Party is very unhappy.
President Thomas Jefferson

32. The Final Offer How about $15 million for ALL of it?
Let’s see James, Congress only gave us $10 million.
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the French Minister of Foreign Relations
James Monroe, Minister to France and Spain
Robert Livingston, Minister to France

33. Louisiana Purchase Treaty
A Waste of Money?
Amazed by the offer, Jefferson accepted and rushed the treaty through Congress, in spite of doubts about its constitutionality.
Federalists attacked the purchase not only as a blatant use of executive power, but as a waste of money.
Nevertheless, the treaty was signed.
Louisiana Purchase Treaty

34. What Jefferson Got
April 30, the United States negotiates the purchase of the Louisiana Territory including the port of New Orleans from France for $15 million.
With a stroke of a pen America doubled in size, making it one of the largest nations in the world.
$15,000,000!

35. A Sweet Deal!
The sale included over 600 million acres at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre in what today is the better part of 13 states between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River.

36. Without Shedding A Single Drop of Blood!
For President Thomas Jefferson it was a diplomatic and political triumph.
In one fell swoop the purchase of Louisiana ended the threat of war with France and opened up the land west of the Mississippi to settlement.
The Transfer of Louisiana in St. Louis, 1804.

37. The Heart of America: New Lands to Explore
The Lewis and Clark Expedition