why did france sell louisiana

France needed money to finance wars. The First Consul happened to be sitting in his bath when his brothers arrived. The U.S. adapted the former Spanish facility at Fort Bellefontaine as a fur trading post near St. Louis in 1804 for business with the Sauk and Fox. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. | READ MORE, 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The Louisiana Purchase was an incredible deal for the United States, the final cost totaling less than five cents per acre at $15 million (about $283 million in today's dollars). Why did France sell Louisiana to the US? I renounce Louisiana. Why did France want to sell the Louisiana Territory? But by the time Victor assembled enough men and ships in January 1803, ice blocked the Dutchport, making it impossible for him to set sail. As part of the deal, the U.S. assumed responsibility for 20 million francs ($3.75 million) of French debts owed to U.S. citizens. France was worried Spain would take away the Caribbean. Meanwhile, Louisiana, which also became a state after the purchase, remained a slave state, and New Orleans remained a critical hub of the slave trade. [27], Spain protested the transfer on two grounds: First, France had previously promised in a note not to alienate Louisiana to a third party and second, France had not fulfilled the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso by having the King of Etruria recognized by all European powers. [55], Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize four missions to explore and map the new territory. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought into the United States about 828,000 square miles of territory from France, thereby doubling the size of the young republic. Many members of the House of Representatives opposed the purchase. The sale of Louisiana was a FIRE SALE for France, and specifically, its self-appointed ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte, for these reasons: 1) France had gotten "burned" with her earlier misadventures in North America. Critics in Congress worried whether these "foreigners", unacquainted with democracy, could or should become citizens. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. Reports of the retrocession caused considerable unease in the United States. Among Eurocentric circles, the Louisiana Purchase was seen as one of the greatest land deals in history. [8] In 1801, Jefferson supported France in its plan to take back Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), which was then under control of Toussaint Louverture after a slave rebellion. Even though Europeans had ostensibly laid claim to Louisiana for centuries, it remained largely undeveloped, with few wanting to move there. 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. Cookie Settings, Five Places Where You Can Still Find Gold in the United States, Scientists Taught Pet Parrots to Video Call Each Otherand the Birds Loved It, Balto's DNA Provides a New Look at the Intrepid Sled Dog, The Science of California's 'Super Bloom,' Visible From Space, What We're Still Learning About Rosalind Franklins Unheralded Brilliance. Although the purchase was undeniably a bargain, the price was still more than the young U.S. treasury could afford. Pakenham was ordered to conduct the New Orleans/Mobile campaign even in the middle of the peace negotiations in late 1814. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. Your Privacy Rights [26] The Federalists also feared that the power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be threatened by the new citizens in the West, whose political and economic priorities were bound to conflict with those of the merchants and bankers of New England. According to the memoirs of Franois Barb-Marbois, in what was a prophetic statement foreshadowing the American Civil War, Napoleon said, "Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. He wanted Saint-Domingue and its incredibly profitable sugar and coffee plantations restored and under French control, with the old system reinstated. By doubling the size of the U.S., the purchase added vast swaths of territory that, pro-slavery advocates argued, should be filled with slaves. The French and Indian war cost her Canada and all of her other possessions on the east bank of the Mississippi. Monroe, along with the minister to France, Robert Livingston, made the inquiry. 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.[1][2]. The treaty called for the return of the vast territory to France in exchange for the small kingdom of Etruria in northern Italy, which Charles wanted for his daughter Louisetta. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. In the meeting, he said that Napoleon had read an account in the London press that 50,000 British troops might be sent to New Orleans. A group of Northern Federalists led by Senator Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts went so far as to explore the idea of a separate northern confederacy. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military activities and intentions in North America. iii. To France, it was a backwater sort of like owning Mediterranean Avenue in Monopoly. [42] The first group of bonds were issued on January 16, 1804, but the banks had already provided a 10 million franc advance to France in July 1803. Neither Livingston nor Monroe had been authorized to buy all of the territory, or to spend $15 milliontransatlantic mail took weeks, sometimes months, each way, so they had no time to request and receive approval of the deal from Washington. Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. If we had not made this purchase, it would have pinched off the possibility of our becoming a continental power, he says. The Louisiana Purchase had major consequences for the United States. France was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 1802 Spanish authorities, apparently acting under French orders, revoked a U.S.-Spanish treaty that granted Americans the right to store. By early 1803, Napoleon decided to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. The crunch came for Jefferson in October 1802. As Napolons foreign minister, Talleyrand customarily demanded outrageous bribes for diplomatic results. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SIGNED Roughneck Daddy: A Memoir by Donna F. Orchard, Paperback Louisiana Oil at the best online prices at eBay! In order to finance his dreams of conquest, Napoleon needed money to finance his military operation, which had been growing in an arms race with Britain. At the time, Britain and France were at war in Europe, and if France had not sold Louisiana that war would most likely have spread to North America .The emergence of a vastly larger British North America might also have made it easier to confine slavery within the southern states. For another, Britain had unofficially offered Joseph a bribe of 100,000 to persuade Napolon not to let the Americans have Louisiana. Without that, the United States' international influence would be less, as would its influence over the development of democracies. When Livingston tried to discuss the territory, Talleyrand simply denied that there was any treaty between France and Spain. The press joined the fray. Aside from the obvious drive for conquest by Napoleon, he knew that when war started between the two countries, Britain would attempt to take Louisiana. In 1796, Spain allied itself with France, leading Britain to use its powerful navy to cut off Spain from America. In financial straits at the time, Monroe sold his china and furniture to raise travel funds, asked a neighbor to manage his properties, and sailed for France on March 8, 1803, with Jeffersons parting admonition ringing in his ears: The future destinies of this republic depended on his success. In 1799, he had seized power in a coup d'tat in France and wanted to restore French glory in the Americas. The social order of the island crumbled and in an attempt to stop the violence, France abolished slavery. Why did France sell the Louisiana Territory? What Napoleon needed was a way to divest himself of the territory while at the same time preventing it from falling into British hands. All Rights Reserved. Napoleon saw in the sale of Louisiana something he needed more than anything else cold, hard cash. Following French defeat in the Seven Years' War, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi, and the British received the territory to the east of the river. 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. As farmers headed into the newly created Missouri territory with their slaves, lawmakers tussled over the issue of which parts should have slavery. Hed planned to send troops to Louisiana to take over the colony, which he had received from the Spanish through a secrettreatyin 1800, in the hopes ofusingthe territory as a trade venue for the commodities produced in Haiti. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. From March 10 to September 30, 1804, Upper Louisiana was supervised as a military district, under its first civil commandant, Amos Stoddard, who was appointed by the War Department. dollar. [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. It was even subject to a speculative bubble which ruined fortunes. Jefferson soon commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition, led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, to explore the territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. 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. The United States had the right, thundered the New York Evening Post, to regulate the future destiny of North America, while the Charleston Courier advocated taking possession of the port . Advertisement Advertisement mira11111 mira11111 Answer: he needed money for the French War. But the official view was summed up by Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac, whom Louis XIV named governor of the territory in 1710: The people are aheap of the dregs of Canada, he sniffed in a 42-page report to the king written soon after he arrived. Saint-Domingue was a powder keg, ready to explode. By the 1720s, several settlements had developed, the chief of which was the territory's capital at New Orleans. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, reshaping the environmental and economic makeup of the country. [33][35], When Spain later objected to the United States purchasing Louisiana from France, Madison responded that America had first approached Spain about purchasing the property but had been told by Spain itself that America would have to treat with France for the territory.[36]. Even in 1803, that was dirt cheap. Du Pont was living in the United States at the time and had close ties to Jefferson as well as the prominent politicians in France. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau. This was emphasized when in the memoir of Franois Barb-Marbois, Napoleon gave up his claim to the territory saying, "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. For one thing, they considered it foolish to voluntarily give up an important French holding on the American continent. But Livingston, although an inexperienced diplomat, tried to keep himself informed about the country to which he was ambassador. Napoleon's brothers, Lucien and Joseph, objected, thinking it a black mark on France's reputation and glory. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began preparing to invade Great Britain. Beginning in the 17th century, France explored the Mississippi River valley and established scattered settlements in the region. A manservant slumped to the floor in a faint. Britain and France renewed hostilities on May 18, 1803, shortly after the deal was finalized. But Napolons troops in Saint Domingue were being decimated by a revolution and an outbreak of yellow fever. By 1860, there weremore than100,000 slaves in Missouri, and slaves were valued at over $44 million (about $112 billion today). The treaty was dated April 30 and signed on May 2. As the Library of Congress describes, Saint-Domingue was incredibly valuable. Feb 14, 2023 - France sold the Louisiana Territory in 1803 because it was ruled by Napoleon and needed money in order to fight the British. The exhibition points up how intertwined the two nations were at the time. As for France, it never seriously established a colonial presence in the Americas again. As slaves killed their masters and occupied and burned their plantations, white people defended themselves, then fled. While this was just a rumor, he had made up his mind to sell the territory. The entire economy of Americas Western territories was in jeopardy. In need of funds, Napoleon pressed the banks to complete their purchase of the bonds as quickly as possible, and by April 1804 the banks transferred an additional 40.35 million francs to fully discharge their obligations to France. France was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 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. But if Haiti was under the control of the slaves, his plan was for naught. When Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France, he altered the shape of a nation and the course of history Joseph A. Harriss April 2003 The Louisiana Purchase nearly. [58] The institutionalization of slavery under U.S. law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 5957. Negotiations moved swiftly, and at the end of April the U.S. envoys agreed to pay $11,250,000 and assume claims of American citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000. France retook it in 1800 when it more or less invaded Spain. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. His strategy was to use Louisiana to supply the flour, salted meat, timber, and other resources necessary to support his troops on the island colony. Furthermore, the Spanish prime minister had authorized the U.S. to negotiate with the French government "the acquisition of territories which may suit their interests." [33] The fledgling United States did not have $15 million in its treasury; it borrowed the sum from Great Britain, at an annual interest rate of six percent. This was coupled with the importation of enslaved Africans. National Geographicpoints out that in modern dollars, the Louisiana Purchase would have cost $342 million. They burned cities, used guerrilla warfare and killed thousands. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. 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. UNDERSTANDABLY, Pierre Clment de Laussat was saddened by this unexpected turn of events. His soldiers died on the island and he knew he could not establish control there. Federalists tried to block the purchase by claiming the land belonged to Spain and not France. 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). As France and the United States negotiated the Louisiana purchase, Haiti became an independent country run by the victorious former slaves. Napoleon was reported to have said of Louisiana in his treasury minister's memoir, "To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.". She has been a regular contributor to History.com since 2017. National Geographic also adds that it paved the way for the imperial expansion and conquest of the Native American tribes of the West. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. In the end, Barings and Hopes acquired the $11.25 million in bonds for just $9.44 million. When word got around that Napoleon was giving up Louisiana to the Americans, not everybody agreed. However, one has to question whether the French ruler considered the consequences of selling France's interest in Louisiana. (There is also a portrait of the marquis himself and a 1784 painting by French artist Jean Suau, Allegory of France Liberating America.) As it turns out, France, or more accurately its ruler Napoleon Bonaparte, had some good reasons for doing it. 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.

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