The Louisiana Purchase :: essays research papers

The atomic number 57 Purchase was the purchase of the French res publica of Louisiana by the United States in 1803. The province stretched from the disseminated multiple sclerosis River westward to the rough Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico northward to Canada, covering an area equal to that of the United States, former to the purchase. Except for the Mississippi River on the east and Canada on the north, the boundaries were indefinite. The United States in addition claimed West Florida between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers as part of the purchase, but Spain denied the claim. As a result of the purchase, the port of spic-and-span Orleans and the entire Mississippi system were secured for American shippers, and the country was free to expand toward the Pacific Ocean. The impairment wa $15,000,000 for an area of 828,000 square miles (2,145,000 km) - less than 3 cents an acre. In 1800, nap Bonaparte got Spain to return it by a secret treaty. Napoleon intend a French em pire in the New World, with its center at New Orleans. President Jefferson was alert to the dangers of a powerful nation despotic the mouth of the Mississippi. He instructed the American minister to France, Robert R. Livingston, to open negotiations to buy New Orleans and some territory east of the city. A treaty would throw away to satisfy the financial claims that some United States citizens had against the French government. Finally the French continued to claim that the province still belonged to Spain. Jefferson sent James Monroe to helper with the negotiations, and authorized him to spend no more than $10,000,000. Napoleon offered Livingston and Monroe the entire province of Louisiana in a treaty dated April 30, 1803. The American negotiators hold to pay $11,250,000 to France and $3,750,000 for the French debts to United States citizens. The purchase forced Jefferson to give a broad interpretation to the Constitution, which did not specifically grant authority for acquirin g new territory.