1. The Louisiana purchase

2. Key Players Thomas Jefferson – President of the united states
Robert Livingston – U.S. minister to france

3. Key PLayers Wanted to restore France’s presence on the continent
Napoleon bonaparte
Wanted to restore
France’s presence on
the continent

4. Transfer of territories
French and Indian War ended in 1763
New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi were transferred to Spain, other French territories east of Mississippi ceded to Britain

5. Why does it matter?
Even though Spain had control of Mississippi, treaty allowed U.S. to use it to transfer and deposit goods in New Orleans – major port city
New Orleans was becoming so important that Jefferson speculated that the United States might acquire it

6. betrayal
In 1801, Spain signed a secret treaty with France to return Louisiana Territory to France
Territory and six warships in exchange for placing Spanish king’s son-in-law on the throne of the newly created kingdom in northern Italy

7. Go forth, Livingston!
Dramatic quotes
“The day that France takes possession of New Orleans…we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.” - Thomas Jefferson
“…perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation.” - Thomas Jefferson

8. Jefferson feared this would block westward expansion
Things get worse
Jefferson feared this would block westward expansion
Had planned on expansion, farmland
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

9. Napoleon’s reputation had preceded him
U.S. ready to go to war
Napoleon’s reputation had preceded him
Thousands of French troops intended for Louisiana were decimated by slave rebellion and yellow fever in Haiti

10. Thanks mosquitos!
Yellow fever ravaged almost 50,000 French soldiers – no immunity
Medical ignorance of doctors; immunity?
Headaches, fever, muscle cramps, nausea, black vomit, delirium, coma, and death
Summer 1802 – 50 men dying per day
November 1803 – French retreated with only 3,000 survivors

12. Robert Livingston went to France to negotiate
negotiations
Robert Livingston went to France to negotiate
Jefferson planned on buying New Orleans for $9 million
Napoleon offered entire territory for $15 million
$250 million, $0.42 per acre today

13. The haters
Wasn’t anything explicit in the constitution about allowing the president to purchase land in order to expand the size of the US
Opposition – “We are to give money, of which we have too little, for land, of which we have too much”