US History

1. The Greatest Land Deal
in the History of the United States!
The Louisiana Purchase

2. Where Was the Original
Louisiana Territory?

3. Who Claimed the Louisiana
Territory?
• Native Americans
• French
• British
• Spanish
• Americans

4. Native Americans
• 14,000 years ago —
Native Americans
began to occupy the
lower Mississippi Valley.
Mississippi mound builders

5. French
• 1682 — French explorers
claimed the entire
Mississippi River
drainage and named it for
King Louis V.
• 1722 — New Orleans,
established by a private
French trading company
for the shipment of
exports from the
Mississippi Valley, mainly
furs, tobacco, and indigo,
became the capitol of the
Territory.
New Orleans

6. Shape Shifting
France held claim for 80 years.

7. British
• 1763 — In the Treaty of
Paris, which concluded the
Seven Years' War (known as
the "French and Indian War"
in North America), major
land exchanges are made.
All of Louisiana east of the
Mississippi, except New
Orleans, goes to Britain.
• New Orleans and all of
Louisiana west of the
Mississippi goes to Spain.
Mississippi
River
New Orleans
SPANISH
WEST
BRITISH
EAST
LOUISIANA
.

8. Spanish
1783 — Following the
American War of
Independence, Britain
cedes its old Louisiana
Territory land east of
the Mississippi, to the
United States, and
gives Florida back to
Spain.
Mississippi R.
New Orleans
and
Florida
U.S.
West of the
Mississipp
i
East of the
Mississippi
SPANISH

9. Shape Shifting
Spain held claim for 38 years.

10. Spanish New Orleans
1795 — Charles
Pinckney, U.S.
Minister to Spain,
negotiates an
agreement with Spain
allowing Americans to
use New Orleans as a
duty-free port for
foreign commerce, for
renewable three-year
periods.
Charles IV, King of Spain
Si! si!
America
may use
my
beautiful
port.

11. Napoleon and the Mosquitoes
Napoleon, an aggressive,
ambitious military genius.
Mosquito, an aggressive,
yellow-fever-carrying insect.
O K Guys, I’m
taking over!
That’s
what
you
think!

12. Why Does Napoleon Want
Louisiana?
• Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte has a vision of
a renewed western empire
for France.
• Control over the vast
Louisiana Territory would
halt the westward
expansion of the young
United States and would
supply French colonies in
the West Indies with the
goods they needed.

13. Napoleon’s Scheme
• His scheme includes the
recapture of Louisiana from
a very weak Spain.
• Napoleon takes a break
from his conquests in
Europe to send French
troops to the West Indies.
I LOVE
power!

14. The BIG Secret
• 1800 — Secretly, under
pressure from Napoleon
Bonaparte, King Charles
IV of Spain, gives ALL of
Louisiana, including New
Orleans, back to France,
on condition that it not be
sold or given to any other
country.
• Weak Spain and strong
France secretly sign the
Treaty of San Idelfonso. First Consul Napoleon
Bonaparte
Oui,
Charlie.
For dis, I
weel
geeve
your son-
in-law a
leetle
Italian
kingdom.

15. Shape Shifting
France held claim for 3 years.

16. Thomas Jefferson
Meanwhile….back in
the U.S.A.

17. 1801
• When Thomas Jefferson
became president in 1801,
two out of every three
Americans lived within fifty
miles of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Only four crude roads crossed
the Allegheny Mountains.
• The U.S. ended on the
eastern banks of the
Mississippi River.
• Florida was governed by
Spain
Ohio River
Allegheny Mountains
Spanish
Florida
Mississippi River

18. Western U.S. Territories
The half-million
Americans (one out of
10) who already lived
west of the
Appalachian
Mountains felt they
had found their own
“national”
interests.
APPALACHIAN MTS.
Out West,
we
frontiersmen
have our
own agenda.
Ha! Ha!
In the
East, we
have all
the good
ports

19. Western U.S. Territories
Many people along the
Mississippi viewed
themselves as the
seeds of an
independent nation
that would tap into the
world marketplace, not
by going east to the
Atlantic seaboard, but
by following the Ohio
and Mississippi river
system down to the Gulf
of Mexico.

20. Jefferson’s Plan
• Jefferson knew the
inhabitants of this region
posed a risk of secession
from the United States.
After all, the nation, only
18 years old, was born of
rebellion.
• He was determined to
obtain the vital trading port
of New Orleans for the
United States, in part to
prevent the West from
breaking away.
Port of New Orleans (1870)

21. The Secret is Discovered
• 1801 — President Thomas
Jefferson is shocked when
he learns the secret Treaty
of San Idelfonso.
• Considering strong French
control over New Orleans to
be a serious threat, he
instructs his Minister to
France in Paris, Robert R.
Livingston, to try to buy
New Orleans and Florida, or
at least western Florida.
Jefferson
just wants
a little
port.
Robert Livingston,
Minister to France

22. Jefferson Stands Up to Napoleon
• Also, Jefferson let it be
known that the U.S
would ally itself with
England and fight
France if the French
start a war on the
continent.
• The French decline to
sell New Orleans or
western Florida.
I weel have it
all!!
Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte

23. Toussaint L’Overture
Two years later…the French army off the coast of
Florida in the West Indies is having some
problems.
Haiti
Florida The
West
Indies

24. Napoleon’s Plan Collapses
1803- Napoleon's plan
collapses when his
Caribbean army is
defeated by yellow fever
carrying mosquitoes and
a brilliant black general
named Toussaint
L’Overture who has been
leading a slave revolt on
French Haiti for 12 years.
I
LOVE
power!
General Toussaint
L’Overture

25. The Best-Laid Plans…
• The remaining French
troops are forced to return
to France defeated. Thus
preventing them from
reaching their ultimate
destination--Louisiana--
and from being able to
defend it.
• As Napoleon's New World
empire disintegrates, the
loss of French Haiti makes
Louisiana unnecessary.
I hate
mosquitoes
!

26. What Jefferson Wanted
I just want a little
port near the
Mississippi River.

27. Jefferson Persists
• President Jefferson,
learning that the
defeated French might
be willing to consider
selling some land after
all, sends Monroe to
Paris with instructions
from Secretary of State,
James Madison, to buy
a small piece of land.
• Congress appropriates
$2 million.
You can
count on
me to
secure
the deal,
Mr.
President.
James Monroe,
Minister to Spain and
France

28. The French Reply
Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Perigord, the
French Minister of Foreign
Relations, declines the offer.
$2
million?
No
deal!
Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Perigord, the
French Minister of Foreign
Relations

29. The BIG Surprise!
Needing money to
prosecute his
campaigns elsewhere
on the globe, Napoleon
changes his mind and
decides to offer to sell
ALL of Louisiana,
(including New Orleans)
to the United States.
You may
have zee
whole
territory.
I’m going
home.

30. Let’s Make A Deal
• Robert Livingston is
prepared to pay only
$2 million for a PORT
such as New Orleans.
• Talleyrand says
Louisiana would be
worthless to France
without the port city,
and asks Livingston to
make an offer. Louisiana Purchase negotiations

31. Jefferson Acts Quickly
• Although there are no
provisions in the
Constitution for buying
territories, Jefferson, a
Republican, has
Congress appropriate
$10 million.
• The Federalist Party is
very unhappy.
I will stretch
my
presidential
power ‘till it
cracks!
President Thomas Jefferson

32. The Final Offer
How about
$15 million
for ALL of it?
Charles Maurice de
Talleyrand-Perigord, the
French Minister of Foreign
Relations
Robert Livingston,
Minister to France
Let’s see
James,
Congress
only gave
us $10
million.
James Monroe,
Minister to France
and Spain

33. A Waste of Money?
• Amazed by the offer,
Jefferson accepted and
rushed the treaty through
Congress, in spite of doubts
about its constitutionality.
• Federalists attacked the
purchase not only as a
blatant use of executive
power, but as a waste of
money.
• Nevertheless, the treaty was
signed.
Louisiana Purchase Treaty

34. What Jefferson Got
• April 30, 1803 - the
United States
negotiates the purchase
of the Louisiana
Territory including the
port of New Orleans
from France for $15
million.
• With a stroke of a pen
America doubled in
size, making it one of
the largest nations
in the world.
$15,000,000!

35. A Sweet Deal!
The sale included over
600 million acres at a
cost of less than 3
cents an acre in what
today is the better part
of 13 states between
the Rocky Mountains
and the Mississippi
River.

36. Without Shedding A Single
Drop of Blood!
• For President Thomas
Jefferson it was a
diplomatic and political
triumph.
• In one fell swoop the
purchase of Louisiana
ended the threat of war
with France and opened
up the land west of the
Mississippi to
settlement.
The Transfer of Louisiana in
St. Louis, 1804.

37. The Heart of America:
New Lands to Explore
The Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804-
1806