Land for Sale Napoleon & the Louisiana Purchase urphillypal.com Presentation created by Robert Martinez Primary Source Content: America’s History Images as cited.
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in France and began an ambitious campaign to a French empire in Europe and in America.
In 1801, he coerced Spain into signing a secret treaty that returned Louisiana to France.
A year later, he directed Spanish officials in Louisiana to restrict American access to New Orleans, violating the terms of Pickney’s Treaty. cgi.ebay.com
Meanwhile, Napoleon planned an invasion to restore French rule in Haiti a rich sugar island seized in 1793 by rebellious black slaves led by Toussaint L’Ouverture. www2.needham.k12.ma.us
Napoleon’s aggression prompted Jefferson to question his party’s pro-French foreign policy. mahanjeffersonfamily.wordpr
“The day that France takes possession of New Orleans,” President Jefferson warned, “we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.”
Jefferson feared that the French might close the Mississippi River to western farmers, threatening his vision of an expanding yeoman republic. reformation.org
He instructed, Robert Livingston, the American minister in Paris to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans. history.howstuffworks.com
Simultaneously, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Britain to negotiate an alliance in case of war with France. csmh.pbworks.com
By 1802, the French invasion of Haiti was faltering in the face of disease and determined black resistance, a new war threatened in Europe, and Napoleon feared an American invasion of Louisiana. speech-school.com
Acting with characteristic decisiveness, the French ruler offered to sell not only New Orleans but the entire territory of Louisiana for $15 million dollars.
The Louisiana Purchase forced the president to reconsider his strict interpretation of the Constitution. actnowus.org
Jefferson had always maintained that the national government possessed only the powers “expressly” delegated to it in the Constitution, but there was no constitutional provision for adding new territory.
In this case, a pragmatic Jefferson accepted a loose interpretation of the Constitution, using the treaty- making powers authorized there to complete the deal with France. athensboy.wordpress.com
A scientist as well as a statesman, Jefferson wanted detailed information about the physical features of the new territory, its plant and animal life, and its Native peoples. Species collected During the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
In 1804, he sent his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, to explore the region with William Clark, an army officer. eslaudio.blogspot.com
With the help of Indian guides, Lewis and Clark and their party of American soldiers and frontiersmen traveled up the Missouri river, across the Rocky Mountains, and, venturing beyond the bounds of the Louisiana Purchase, down the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.
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After two years, they returned with the first maps of the immense wilderness and vivid accounts of its natural resources and inhabitants.