why did france sell louisiana
This must have been a wrenching moment for Jefferson, who had long been a Francophile. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million and nearly doubled the size of the U.S. A slaves life in Haiti was usually short and miserable. The U.S. adapted the former Spanish facility at Fort Bellefontaine as a fur trading post near St. Louis in 1804 for business with the Sauk and Fox. 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. But if Haiti was under the control of the slaves, his plan was for naught. But Napolons troops in Saint Domingue were being decimated by a revolution and an outbreak of yellow fever. 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. Napoleon was eager to sellbut the purchase would end up expanding slavery in the U.S. Map showing the area covered by the Louisiana Purchase. 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! 8 Things You May Not Know About the Louisiana Purchase - History They wanted the U.S. government to establish laws allowing slavery in the newly acquired territory so they could be supported in taking their slaves there to undertake new agricultural enterprises, as well as to reduce the threat of future slave rebellions. 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. Louisiana had never been considered one of New Spain's internal provinces. Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801[9] with the authorization to purchase New Orleans. 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. 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. Alain Chappet, Roger Martin, Alain Pigeard. The difficulties and risks . But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Claiborne and Gen. James Wilkinson, the new commissioners of the territory, officially took possession of it in the name of the United States, assuring all residents that their property, rights and religion would be respected, celebratory salvos boomed from the forts around the city. Why did France sell the Louisiana Territory? ", The Historic New Orleans Collection provides more nuance to the negotiations of the Louisiana Purchase. When it came to profit and geopolitical importance, Napoleon was far more interested in the Caribbean. The Louisiana Purchase extended United States sovereignty across the Mississippi River, nearly doubling the nominal size of the country. Advertising Notice [47] However by December 1803, the British directed Barings to halt future payments to France. [63], The Louisiana Purchase was negotiated between France and the United States, without consulting the various Indian tribes who lived on the land and who had not ceded the land to any colonial power. [24], The opposition of New England Federalists to the Louisiana Purchase was primarily economic self-interest, not any legitimate concern over constitutionality or whether France indeed owned Louisiana or was required to sell it back to Spain should it desire to dispose of the territory. In order to finance his dreams of conquest, Napoleon needed money to finance his military operation, which had been growing in an arms race with Britain. How Does Marram Grass Help Stabilise The Dunes,
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why did france sell louisiana