With the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France on le 30 avril 1803, the United States added more than 529,911,681 acres (827,987 mi² or 2,144,476 km2) of territory at the cost of about 3¢ per acre (7¢ per hectare); $15 million or 80 million francs in total. Quite a bargain!
The French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current U.S. state of Louisiana. The lands purchased contained parts or all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota west of the Mississippi River, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains, the portions of southern Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta that drain into the Missouri River, and Louisiana on both sides of the Mississippi River including the city of New Orleans. The land included in the Purchase comprises 22.3 percent of the territory of the modern United States.
The purchase was an important moment in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being possibly unconstitutional.
The city of New Orleans controlled the Mississippi River. The Mississippi was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the parts of the U.S. west of the Appalachian Mountains. Through Pinckney's Treaty signed with Spain on le 27 octobr 1795, American merchants had "right of deposit" in New Orleans, meaning they could use the port to store goods for export. Americans also used this "right of deposit" to transport products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, and cheese. In 1798, Spain revoked this treaty which greatly upset Americans. In 1801, Spanish governor, Don Juan Manual de Salcedo took over for Governor Casa Calvo and the right to deposit goods from the United States was restored.
Napoléon Bonaparte returned Louisiana to French control from Spain in 1800, under the Treaty of San Ildefonso (Louisiana had been a Spanish colony since 1762). However, this treaty was kept secret, and Louisiana would remain under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France which had yet to be organized. It finally took place on le 30 novembre 1803, just three weeks before the cession to the U.S.
Americans were fearful that they would lose their rights of use to New Orleans. The Jefferson Administration decided that the best way to assure long term access to the Mississippi would be to purchase the city of New Orleans and the nearby portions of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate such a purchase.
Napoléon was faced with the defeat of his armies in Saint-Domingue (present-day Republic of Haiti) where an expeditionary force under his brother-in-law Charles Leclerc was attempting to reassert control over a slave rebellion that threatened France's most profitable colony.
Political conflicts in Guadeloupe and in Saint-Domingue itself grew with the restoration of slavery on le 20 mai 1802, and the defection of leading French officers, like the black general Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the mulatto officer Alexandre Pétion in octobre 1802, within the context of an ongoing guerilla war. The French had successfully deported Toussaint L'Ouverture to France in juin 1802, but yellow fever was destroying European soldiers and claimed Leclerc himself in novembre.
Lacking sufficient military forces in America, Napoléon needed peace with Great Britain to implement the Treaty of San Ildefonso and take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for the British or even for the Americans. Britain had breached her promise to evacuate Malta by septembre 1802 as stipulated in the peace of Amiens, and in the beginning of the year 1803, war between France and Britain seemed increasingly unavoidable. On 11 mars 1803, Napoléon decided to start building a flotilla of barges to invade Britain.
These circumstances led Bonaparte to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Napoléon gave notice to his business minister, Francois de Barbe-Marbois, on le 10 avril 1803 that he was considering surrendering the Louisana Territory to the United States. On le 11 avril 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Marquess de Barbé-Marbois, Napoléon's minister of the treasury, offered Livingston all of Louisiana instead of just New Orleans. President Jefferson had instructed Livingston to purchase only the Floridas. However, he was certain that the United States would accept such a large offer.
The American negotiators were prepared to spend $10 million for New Orleans, but were dumbfounded when the entire region was offered for $15 million. The treaty was dated le 30 avril 1803 and was signed on le 2 mai. On Bastille Day, le 14 juillet 1803 the treaty reached Washington D.C. The Louisiana territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert's Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west.
The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoléon. The Federalists argued that the purchase was unconstitutional, and that the U.S. had paid a large sum of money just to declare war on Spain. The Federalists also feared that the political power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be threatened by the new citizens of the west, bringing about a clash of western farmers with the merchants and bankers of New England. A group of Federalists led by Massachusetts Senator Timothy Pickering went so far as to plan a separate northern confederacy, offering Vice-President Aaron Burr the presidency of the proposed new country if he persuaded New York to join. Burr's relationship with Alexander Hamilton, who helped bring an end to the nascent northern secession movement, soured during this period. The animosity between the two men grew during the 1801 election and ended with Hamilton's death in a duel with Mr. Burr in the year of 1804.
On le 30 avril 1803, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé Marbois at Paris. Jefferson announced the treaty to the American people on le 4 juillet.
The United States Senate ratified the treaty, with a vote of twenty-four to seven, on le 20 october; on the following day, it authorized President Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. In legislation enacted on le 31 octobre, 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. Plans were also set forth for a mission to explore and chart the territory, which would become known as the Lewis and Clark expedition. France then turned New Orleans over to the USA on le 20 décember 1803. On le 10 mars 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis, to transfer ownership of the territory from France to the United States of America.
Effective on le 1 octobre 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Orleans Territory (most of which became the state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under the control of the Indiana Territory.
The Louisiana Purchase led to a dispute between the United States and Spain over the boundaries of the area the United States had bought. According to the Spanish, Louisiana consisted roughly of the west bank of the Mississippi River and the city of New Orleans. The United States, on the other hand, claimed that it stretched all the way to the Rio Grande and the Rocky Mountains, a claim unacceptable for Spain, as it would mean the loss of Texas and half of New Mexico, both Spanish colonies. The two nations also disagreed about the ownership of West Florida, a strip of land between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers. The United States claimed this area was part of the purchase; Spain said that it was not, and east of the Mississippi only the city of New Orleans was part of the Louisiana purchase. Spain also held that the entire Louisiana Purchase was illegal, because the Spanish treaty handing Louisiana to the French had stipulated the French were not allowed to hand it over to a third power, and also because Napoléon had not adhered to his part of the treaty (giving a kingdom in Italy to the brother-in-law of King Carlos IV).
In 1810, after a revolt in West Florida, the United States annexed the region between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers (known today as the Florida Parishes of Louisiana). In 1812, the Mobile District was annexed (the region between the Pearl and Perdido Rivers, which now forms the panhandles of Alabama and Mississippi). The matter was not fully settled until the signing of the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, in which Spain ceded all of Florida to the U.S. and the boundary between the Louisiana territory and the Spanish colonies was set along the Sabine, Red and Arkansas rivers and the 42nd parallel.
When purchased, the boundaries of "Louisiana" were not defined, and the land itself was generally unknown (which led to the Lewis and Clark expedition). In particular, not wanting to anger Spain, France refused to specify the southern and western boundaries. Estimates that did exist as to the extent and composition of the purchase were initially based on the explorations of Robert LaSalle.
1 commentaires:
I have quite a few Louis and Clark books as well as on the La. Purchase.
I made a copy of this and put in my best L & C book.
Thanks for sharing.
Troy
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