Essay On Louisiana Purchase

During the United States’ infancy, many French influences began to affect American policies. France colonized the middle of the United states from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains to New Orleans. This vast land colony was lost after the peace treaty following the Seven Years War. Forced to cede their American lands to the English and Spanish, France never forgot their prized possession. Choiseul’s plan to recover the lands started with the unrest in America before the American Revolution, “In 1766, Choiseul ordered Edmé Genet to send a naval officer-turned-spy— Sieur Pontleroy— to America to evaluate colonist dissatisfaction and determine whether French arms and money might help incite rebellion.”

Section 1- Political Developments A) The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the territory of the United States. The land was acquired from France in a deal between Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon. This new territory increased the feeling of independence by letting settlers and yeoman farmers expand into the west.

With Enlightenment ideals circulating the expanding media, a first peaceful, then violent, revolution took place in France in which the growing bourgeois, or middle class, displaced the aristocracy. From the conflict rose an aggressive and militarily brilliant leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, whose nationalism fueled army conquered much of Europe, creating a massive dictatorship. Inspired by the revolution, French colonies, most notably Haiti, began to rebel and drive for their own independence and homeland sovereignty. Embroiled with the revolutions as well as the costly and monotonous war in Europe, the strategic Bonaparte abandoned his vision of a French overseas empire on the North American continent by selling the massive Louisiana territory

The Louisiana Purchase began the westward expansion of the United States in the 1840s. Settlers began moving themselves into the new land, exploring and finding out the benefits and costs of living in a previoulsy uninhabited area. A family of five people followed the trend, moving to a section of land near some of their family. The mother, father, and three sons had been on their journey for weeks. The mother tended to her husband, who had broken his leg not too long ago by tripping over some rocks and falling into a ditch.

In 1763, Treaty of Paris was signed ending the Seven Years War. This treaty made France give all North American territories to Britain and Spain. The French presence disappeared in North America after the war, tension between Britain and Native Americans did not though. The outcome of the war was that French power ended in North America and Britain was successful in gaining the power but later down the road experienced conflicts with the Native Americans, as well as with the colonists leading to the American

The American Revolution is the result of a series of social, political, and intellectual changes in American society. It is triggered by a number of legendary ‘intolerable acts’ in the context of the American mindset, manifest destiny. The Quebec Act, the Magna Carta of the French Canadians, is perhaps the most intolerable of these acts, one that produces the extreme and powerful American reaction - revolt. Intended to secure the allegiance of the Quebecois and to frighten off the Americans from engulfing Quebec, Sir Guy Carleton, the Governor of Quebec and Governor General of British North America, convinces the British to establish provisions that allow for its citizens’ and colony’s security. The Act, proclaimed in 1774 and effective in May 1775, expands and secures the boundaries of Quebec, restores French civil law and maintains an appointed British government.

There were many ways that colonists obtained land. The first would be through purchasing land, and an example of this would be the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase is known as the biggest land purchase in U.S history because the French sold it to Thomas Jefferson for 15 million dollars or 3 cents an acre. A second example is the purchase of Florida. This purchase was made when Andrew Jackson blatantly expressed the Spanish that they should govern correctly or return to Spain.

The Louisiana Purchase was land that was bought by America from France. By purchasing this land it opened new opportunities for faster trade and more land that they could use to colonize. The two famous explorers that were able to discover and chart new routes that could be used. For example on one of their journeys they were able to find an overland route that would get them through the mountain range. Drafted and put into act by the U.S president Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison the Embargo Act of 1807 would control the trade in and out of the U.S. “during the continuance of the, act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States (Embargo Act 1807).”

The late 1700s was a fresh start for The United States. After gaining independence from Britain in 1776, the newly independent colony needed unity in the face of a revolutionary war. This unity came in the form of The Articles of Confederation, which was a proto-constitution which held the different states together during the war. It was soon realized that the Articles raised more questions and created more problems than it solved- in the words of Alexander Hamilton “[The Articles of Confederation] were neither fit for war nor peace.”

The 1790s marked a time of rebirth for the American government. With first President George Washington at its helm, the decade brought into effect the many facets of the recently ratified Constitution as well as the institution of federal laws, banking policies, and taxes. As the country sought to establish itself as an organized world power, turmoil was ensuing in Europe with the eruption of the French Revolution, presenting the nascent United States with its first foreign dilemma. Within the borders, however, a much larger problem was brewing. Nearly every piece of legislation tested the balance between centralized government and individual freedom.

The Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana purchase was one of the biggest land purchases in history. In 1803, the United States paid around $15 million dollars for around 800,000 square miles of land. This was arguably the greatest achievement of thomas jefferson’s presidency. The louisiana territory was a wild card in the european game of imperialism.

228). Even though outnumbered, at the end of the war, Prussia managed to defend her land from the French coalition counter-assault, maintaining the status quo ante bellum. Thus no land in Europe was lost by any country as a result of the French and Indian War/Seven Years War. However, in North America, France lost control of Louisiana, relinquishing the expansive territory to Spain despite France being a major imperial power (Scott, 2011, p.423). At the end of the war it was clear that the European, non-combatant, citizens of the empires involved in the war were minimally affected; the majority of the fighting occurred in North America.

The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million dollars and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million dollars which averages to less than three cents per acre. The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The territory contained land that forms Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, portions of Minnesota, large portions of North Dakota; large portions of South Dakota, parts of New Mexico, the northern portion of Texas, the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. The Louisiana Purchase was smart move by the United States.

Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.

After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the Seven Years War between the French and the British as well as all of their allies, the French lost claim to all of their land. The English being the winners of the war claimed the majority, and what they did not seize was given to the Spanish for their support and help in the war. In 1802 France and Spain signed a secret treaty called The Treaty Of Ildefonso. Once the treaty was fulfilled, Spain gave the Louisiana territory back to France (“Background”). Napoleon had interest in Louisiana for the purpose mainly to ship supplies to the French colonies in the Caribbean islands but also as a source of food and trade.