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Cantonment Belle Fontaine 8051826 The First U.S. Fort West of the Mississippi River. This would allow the Americans to retain clear access to the river. The Louisiana Purchase, made 200 years ago this month, nearly doubled the size of the United States. In 1799, he had seized power in a coup d'tat in France and wanted to restore French glory in the Americas. Why France Sold the Louisiana Purchase to the US In 1718, French explorer Jean-Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, founded a settlement near the site of La Salles proclamation, and named it la Nouvelle Orlans for Philippe, Duke of Orlans and Regent of France. Advertising Notice The purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. Why did France sell Louisiana? How did France obtain the Louisiana Territory? - 2023 What if France never sold Louisiana? [6] The territory nominally remained under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the formal cession of the territory to the United States on December 20, 1803.[7]. [4] The colony was the most substantial presence of France's overseas empire, with other possessions consisting of a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. This created an unstable situation at the western border which could draw his young country into the Napoleonic Wars. The British would have likely garrisoned New Orleans and would have occupied it for a very long time because they and their ally Spain did not recognize any treaties and land deals conducted by Napoleon since 1800, especially the Louisiana Purchase. Pakenham was ordered to conduct the New Orleans/Mobile campaign even in the middle of the peace negotiations in late 1814. Louisiana Purchase - Wikipedia So many slaves died of yellow feverand ill treatment that the entire slave population turned overevery 20 years, and slaves were held in subjugation through a strict caste system. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. [4] New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. The latter knew America well, having spent some years in Philadelphia in the late 1700s as French ambassador to the United States, where he got to know Washington, Jefferson, Livingston and Monroe. Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. But if it werent for a slave rebellion, Louisiana wouldnt be part of the United States at all. According to Slavery and Remembrance, the French imported nearly 800,000 enslaved Africans to the colony for brutal plantation work in what was one of the most violent slavery systems in the Americas. If Napoleon's designs had succeeded, perhaps his decision to abandon Louisiana would be looked at in history as a bit more shrewd than it seemed at first blush. Its about more than just a humdinger of a real estate deal. 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. The Northerners were not enthusiastic about Western farmers gaining another outlet for their crops that did not require the use of New England ports. The Louisiana territory was born on April 9, 1682, when the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur (Lord) de La Salle, erected a cross and column near the mouth of the Mississippi and solemnly read a declaration to a group of bemused Indians. But the purchase was also fueled by a slave revolt in Haitiand tragically, it ended up expanding slavery in the United States. This was particularly true in the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, which also contained a large number of free people of color. National Geographicpoints out that in modern dollars, the Louisiana Purchase would have cost $342 million. As Jefferson had written in April 1802 to the U.S. minister in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, it was crucial that the port of New Orleans remain open and free for American commerce, particularly the goods coming down the Mississippi River.