why did france sell louisiana

All four started from the Mississippi River. Livingston wrote to James Madison, "We shall do all we can to cheapen the purchase, but my present sentiment is that we shall buy.". [10], In 1803, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman, began to help negotiate with France at the request of Jefferson. The jewel of the French overseas empire was Saint-Domingue in the Caribbean, which is today's Haiti on the large island of Hispaniola. Plenty of sunshine. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. Also, many Federalists were speculators in lands in upstate New York and New England and were hoping to sell these lands to farmers, who might go west instead, if the Louisiana Purchase went through. [39] New Orleans was the administrative capital of the Orleans Territory, and St. Louis was the capital of the Louisiana Territory. pp. Out of anger towards Spain and the unique opportunity to sell something that was useless and not truly his yet, Napoleon decided to sell the entire territory. Aside from the obvious drive for conquest by Napoleon, he knew that when war started between the two countries, Britain would attempt to take Louisiana. There he confirmed Napolons desire to sell the territory for $22,500,000. Napoleon sent a massive 30,000 troops French expeditionary force commanded by his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to St. Domingue to accomplish this goal. [33][35], When Spain later objected to the United States purchasing Louisiana from France, Madison responded that America had first approached Spain about purchasing the property but had been told by Spain itself that America would have to treat with France for the territory.[36]. Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. But in 1800, the region again changed hands, when Napolon negotiated the clandestine Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spains Charles IV. The French ruler was just about to embark on a series of devastating wars. Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. It is not only New Orleans that I will cede, it is the whole colony without reservation. Considering France was on one different continent and that Louisiana Territory was on another continent, owning that territory would seem less important to what's currently . [57] As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being admitted as "slave states." As for France, it never seriously established a colonial presence in the Americas again. A manservant slumped to the floor in a faint. Napoleon needed peace with Britain to take possession of Louisiana. And in 1801, Spain signed a secret treaty with France to return the Louisiana Territory to France. I renounce Louisiana, Napolon told him. [citation needed], In Saint-Domingue, Leclerc's forces took Louverture prisoner, but their expedition soon faltered in the face of fierce resistance and disease. As it turns out, France, or more accurately its ruler Napoleon Bonaparte, had some good reasons for doing it. The difficulties and risks . The crunch came for Jefferson in October 1802. Barb-Marbois received his orders on April 11, 1803, when Napolon summoned him. As Napolons foreign minister, Talleyrand customarily demanded outrageous bribes for diplomatic results. By Edmund Duncan May 31, 2022. The Louisiana Purchase is perhaps the most famous real estate deal in American history. The vast territory was named after Louis XIV, the so-called Sun King. [56] The maps and journals of the explorers helped to define the boundaries during the negotiations leading to the AdamsOns Treaty, which set the western boundary as follows: north up the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to its intersection with the 32nd parallel, due north to the Red River, up the Red River to the 100th meridian, north to the Arkansas River, up the Arkansas River to its headwaters, due north to the 42nd parallel and due west to its previous boundary. WATCH: Full episodes of The American Presidency with Bill Clinton online now. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states' elections as fair and secure. There was no arguing with Napoleon, who would, after all,crown himself Emperor in 1804. This created an unstable situation at the western border which could draw his young country into the Napoleonic Wars. Lucien said that the legislative chambers of the French government would not approve it, to which Napoleon replied that he would do it without their consent. [28], Henry Adams claimed "The sale of Louisiana to the United States was trebly invalid; if it were French property, Bonaparte could not constitutionally alienate it without the consent of the French Chambers; if it were Spanish property, he could not alienate it at all; if Spain had a right of reclamation, his sale was worthless. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for a potential invasion from Britain or the U.S. By the middle of the 18th century, France controlled more of the present-day United States than any other European power: from New Orleans northeast to the Great Lakes and northwest to modern-day Montana. France had just re-taken control of the Louisiana Territory. I renounce it with the greatest regret." This week (May 2) in 1803, the United States and France formally signed the treaty that transferred the Louisiana Territory, including the port city of New Orleans, to the United States for the paltry sum of $11,250,000. Spains King Charles IV finally got around to signing the royal decree officially transferring the territory to France, and on October 16, the Spanish administrator in New Orleans, Juan Ventura Morales, who had agreed to administer the colony until his French replacement, Laussat, could arrive, arbitrarily ended the American right to deposit cargo in the city duty-free. The sale of Louisiana was a FIRE SALE for France, and specifically, its self-appointed ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte, for these reasons: 1) France had gotten "burned" with her earlier misadventures in North America. The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803, (10 Floral XI in the French Republican calendar) at the Htel Tubeuf in Paris. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi out to sea. Her work has appeared in outlets like The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, TIME, Smithsonian and more. In exchange, the United States acquired the vast domain of Louisiana Territory, some 828,000 square miles of land. What if France never sold Louisiana? He had always seen Saint Domingue, with a population of more than 500,000, producing enough sugar, coffee, indigo, cotton and cocoa to fill some 700 ships a year, as Frances most important holding in the Western Hemisphere. Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. It remained in Spanish hands until 1800, when Napoleon Bonaparte negotiated a secret treaty with Spain and took the vast holding back in exchange for tiny Etruria in Northern Italy. He could not or did not see the value in sending troops to defend worthless Louisiana, not with Saint-Domingue out of the equation. By early 1803, Napoleon decided to abandon his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition. As France and the United States negotiated the Louisiana purchase, Haiti became an independent country run by the victorious former slaves. It would have seemed unthinkable for France to cede any of its colonial territories before 1791. Negotiations moved swiftly, and at the end of April the U.S. envoys agreed to pay $11,250,000 and assume claims of American citizens against France in the amount of $3,750,000. [42] In October 1803, the U.S. Treasury had some $5.86 million in specie on hand, $2 million of which would be used to pay a portion of the debts assumed from France as part of the purchase. You have come to a very corrupt world, Napolon told him frankly, adding roguishly that Talleyrand was the right man to explain what he meant by corruption. What's more, as described by Medium, the French ruler believed that a more powerful United States was better for France. There was also concern that an increase in the number of slave-holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between North and South. Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin added that since the power to negotiate treaties was specifically granted to the president, the only way extending the country's territory by treaty could not be a presidential power would be if it were specifically excluded by the Constitution (which it was not). [30], Other historians counter the above arguments regarding Jefferson's alleged hypocrisy by asserting that countries change their borders in two ways: (1) conquest, or (2) an agreement between nations, otherwise known as a treaty. Answer (1 of 2): Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. On the following day, October 21, 1803, the Senate authorized Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. 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. France was in shock, and Napoleon began to realize that his dream of a French empire in the Americas might be doomed. France was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 1802 Spanish authorities, apparently acting under French orders, revoked a U.S.-Spanish treaty that granted Americans the right to store. The territory's boundaries had not been defined in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau that ceded it from France to Spain, nor in the 1801 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceding it back to France, nor the 1803 Louisiana Purchase agreement ceding it to the United States.[49]. The Louisiana Territory, in Napolons view, was useful mainly as a granary for Saint Domingue. French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle first claimed the Louisiana Territory, which he named for King Louis XIV, during a. When it came to profit and geopolitical importance, Napoleon was far more interested in the Caribbean. And St. Domingue, which is now known as Haiti, was one of the great sugar capitals of the world. Southern Quarterlynotes, "What is often remembered as a remarkably 'peaceful' transfer of land was in fact predicated on events of enormous violence that took place in the Caribbean.". 20 Why did France no longer need Louisiana quizlet? When Joseph continued to object, Napoleon shouted, "You are insolent!" This was emphasized when in the memoir of Franois Barb-Marbois, Napoleon gave up his claim to the territory saying, "Irresolution and deliberation are no longer in season. [46], Because Napoleon wanted to receive his money as quickly as possible, Barings and Hopes purchased the bonds for 52 million francs, agreeing to an initial 6 million franc payment upon issuance of the bonds followed by 23 monthly payments of 2 million francs each. The British had re-entered the war and France was losing the Haitian Revolution and could not defend Louisiana. Washington University in St. Louis Press. Why did the French leave Louisiana? On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barb-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15million,[13] which averages to less than three cents per acre (7/ha). [23], After Monroe and Livingston had returned from France with news of the purchase, an official announcement of the purchase was made on July 4, 1803. In the 1780s, it produced 60% of the world's coffee and supplied Britain and France with 40% of its sugar. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. To their surprise, France offered to sell them the entire territory of Louisiana instead. The treaty called for the return of the vast territory to France in exchange for the small kingdom of Etruria in northern Italy, which Charles wanted for his daughter Louisetta. [57], The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but incorporating provisions from the preceding French and Spanish rule (for instance, Spain had prohibited slavery of Native Americans in 1769, but some slaves of mixed African-Native American descent were still being held in St. Louis in Upper Louisiana when the U.S. took over). Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri already had some slaveholders in the 18th and early 19th century. All or parts of 15 Western states would eventually be carved from its nearly 830,000 square miles, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. U.S. officials feared that France, resurgent under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, would soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico. Fashion-conscious American ladies reportedly imitated Rcamiers attire, but not her custom of receiving visitors in her bedroom. With the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, this is one of the threethings that created the modern United States, says Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies in New Orleans and coauthor with the late Stephen E. Ambrose of The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation. The most ambitious event opens this month at the New Orleans Museum of Art. [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]. The Lewis and Clark expedition followed shortly thereafter. [50] Spain insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. . By the 1720s, several settlements had developed, the chief of which was the territory's capital at New Orleans. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), ordered to negotiate with French Finance Minister Barb-Marbois, https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/louisiana-purchase. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear. Joseph A. Harriss The remaining 60 million francs ($11.25 million) were financed through U.S. government bonds carrying 6% interest, redeemable between 1819 and 1822. The idea was taken up by lawmakers such as Senator James Ross of Pennsylvania, who drafted a resolution calling on Jefferson to form a 50,000-man army to take the city. Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. Refinement, he declared, does not exist in the United States. [1][2], Domestic opposition and constitutionality, Formal transfers and initial organization. A seascapeportrays the Marquis de Lafayettes ship La Victoire setting sail to carry him across the Atlantic in 1777 to fight in the American Revolution. The Louisiana Purchase was the latter, a treaty. 3 Reply frenchchevalierblanc 5 yr. ago France had lost Louisiana in the 1760s to Spain. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SIGNED Roughneck Daddy: A Memoir by Donna F. Orchard, Paperback Louisiana Oil at the best online prices at eBay! "[29] The sale of course was not "worthless"the U.S. actually did take possession. Why happened to Louisiana Territory? 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. France wanted to end Louvertre's rule and reinstate slavery. Charles A. Cerami, author of Jeffersons Great Gamble, agrees. In November 1803, France withdrew its 7,000 surviving troops from Saint-Domingue (more than two-thirds of its troops died there) and gave up its ambitions in the Western Hemisphere. Why did France sell Louisiana? Having arrived in New Orleans from Paris with his wife and three daughters just nine months earlier, in March 1803, the cultivated, worldly French functionary had expected to reign for six or eight years as colonial prefect over the vast territory of Louisiana, which was to be Frances North American empire. According to the memoirs of Franois Barb-Marbois, in what was a prophetic statement foreshadowing the American Civil War, Napoleon said, "Perhaps it will also be objected to me, that the Americans may be found too powerful for Europe in two or three centuries: but my foresight does not embrace such remote fears. As the Library of Congress describes, Saint-Domingue was incredibly valuable. Why did . Furthermore, the Spanish prime minister had authorized the U.S. to negotiate with the French government "the acquisition of territories which may suit their interests." With the failure to retake Saint-Domingue and the inevitability of renewed war between France and Britain, Napoleon refigured his political calculus. Why did France sell Louisiana? Overcoming the opposition of the Federalist Party, Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison persuaded Congress to ratify and fund the Louisiana Purchase. But by the time Victor assembled enough men and ships in January 1803, ice blocked the Dutchport, making it impossible for him to set sail. [40], To pay for the land, the American government used a mix of sovereign bonds and the assumption of French debts. Nobody really knows what post-victory plans for New Orleans and Upper Louisiana were given by the British government to Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and his second-in-command Major General Samuel Gibbs because both generals were killed in action at the Battle of New Orleans. by force of arms. As Secretary of State James Madison explained, The Mississippi is to them everything. Before the revolution, France had derived enormous wealth from St. Domingue at the cost of the lives and freedom of the slaves. But if it werent for a slave rebellion, Louisiana wouldnt be part of the United States at all. These wars, the Napoleonic Wars, lasted from 1803 to 1815 and led, as described by the New World Encyclopedia, to a brief French dominance of Europe. What kind of world were Jefferson and Napolon living and working in? Jefferson considered a constitutional amendment to justify the purchase; however, his cabinet convinced him otherwise. Why did France sell Louisiana to the US? According to the Library of Congress, Napoleon did not have enough troops to occupy Louisiana while simultaneously subduing Saint-Domingue. By April 30, 1803, they hashed out an agreement where the Americans would pay $15 million, a considerable reduction, although its constitutionality was debated. That, in turn, would have meant our ideas on freedom and democracy would have carried less weight with the rest of the world. This success stuck in Napoleon's craw. [citation needed]. A slaves life in Haiti was usually short and miserable. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? [59] In 1808 two military forts with trading factories were built, Fort Osage along the Missouri River in western present-day Missouri and Fort Madison along the Upper Mississippi River in eastern present-day Iowa. They approached the French with the offer to buy New Orleans, a port city of vital significance to American trade that they worried about France owning. But Napoleoncouldnt abide the idea of the island being controlled by former slaves. And he saw the Mississippi River not as the western edge of the country, but as the great spine that would hold the continent together., As it was, frontiersmen, infuriated by the abrogation of the right of deposit of their goods, threatened to seize New Orleans by force. With Congress and a vociferous press calling for action, Jefferson faced the nations most serious crisis since the American Revolution. A.to fund its European wars B.to create a North American empire C.to fund its war against Haitian revolutionaries . On April 30, 1803, France ceded Louisiana to the Americans for 15 million dollars.A sum that will serve Bonaparte's European military projects, in exchange for a territory covering nearly a quarter of the current surface of the United States.Before Louisiana was sold to the United States, it had already been ceded once to Spain. This made it difficult, when compared to Britain, to obtain the necessary money to wage large-scale wars. On April 12, 1803, Franois Barb-Marbois met with the Americans. Earlier in 1803, Francis Baring and Company of London had become the U.S. government's official banking agent in London following the failure of Bird, Savage & Bird. As described by History, under the leadership of Toussaint Louverture, the enslaved allied with nonwhite free people and successfully overthrew the slave order, taking control of all of Hispaniola, not just Saint-Domingue. When word got around that Napoleon was giving up Louisiana to the Americans, not everybody agreed. This would allow the Americans to retain clear access to the river. They wrote an enthusiasticletter to Secretary of State James Madison: "An acquisition of so great an extent was, we well Know, not contemplated by our appointment; but we are persuaded that the Circumstances and Considerations which induced us to make it, will justify us, in the measure, to our Government and Country.".
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