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So, imagine this scenario... In 1802, 30,000 French troops were sailing toward New Orleans to empower French expansion into North America. The United States army had just over 3,000 troops. President Thomas Jefferson wrote, "France possessing herself of Louisiana... is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both shores of the Atlantic and involve in its effects their highest destinies." When Napoleon sent those 30,000 troops toward New Orleans, thankfully, he gave them an errand to run on the way to New Orleans. A slave rebellion had taken control of the profitable French colony of St. Domingue on the island of Hispaniola (in what today is Haiti). Napoleon's war of conquest was expensive and he needed to re-seize control at St. Domingue. But the French troops at Hispaniola were decimated by fighting, sickness, and disease. The surviving troops sailed back to France to report to Napoleon about the terrible disaster. Napoleon's military and economic problems multiplied in early 1803 when Britain declared war on France. Napoleon abandoned his North American plans to focus on Europe. To secure desperately-needed funding, he negotiated with Thomas Jefferson's representatives for the United States to purchase the port of New Orleans and the vast Louisiana Territory for $15 million. After great debate, Congress eventually ratified the treaty in October and by the end of 1803, the United States doubled in size. The deal also importantly included the port of New Orleans which controlled all the shipping trade as the connecting port between ocean-going ships and the thousands of miles of navigable waterway tributaries of the Mississippi River. The purchase required decades of exploration and surveying to determine the boundaries and contents of the purchased land. The United States had acquired claim to 828,000 square miles of land for $15 million. That works out to an average of only three cents an acre! Upon concluding the purchase agreement, America's Minister to France, Robert Livingston, wrote, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives... From this day the United States will take their place among the powers of the first rank... The instruments which we have just signed... prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human creatures." United States western exploration and expansion was sparked by the Louisiana Purchase. And you can explore the international intrigue, secret treaties, and fascinating people with "The Louisiana Purchase" ebook.
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