The Pros And Cons Of The Louisiana Purchase

New American settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains depended on river transportation to transport their goods because overland trade was very expensive and impractical. Also, the United States wanted a tract of land on the lower Mississippi. James Monroe, the primary negotiator in Paris, was empowered to obtain New Orleans and West Florida for anywhere between two and ten million dollars. Surprisingly, however, Napoleon offered much more. The United States was given the opportunity to buy the Louisiana Territory, which stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. This one transaction doubled the physical size of the United States and cost our nation fifteen million dollars. Fifteen million dollars came out to approximately three cents an acre. Now this seems like a relatively small sum for such a massive amount of land, but it was still a gigantic price tag for the modest federal budget of the day.

It was interesting to me to read about Thomas Jefferson’s leadership style in the CNN article and hear about it the video “The Louisiana Purchase.” One of the things in the video that really interested me was how the presidents and politicians would use their own code. I was surprised when the video mentioned how Jefferson purposely sent a letter that was not coded so that Napoleon could hear rumors of America thinking about allying with British. I did not know Thomas Jefferson had it in him to bluff like that. It all makes me wonder, though, who was reading the letters and how many people talked about it for Napoleon himself to end up hearing about the contents of the letter?

The Louisiana Purchase was a land divided out between the United States and France in early 1800's. About 828,000 square miles of land for $15 million was given to the United States. There were many changes which affected the size and popularity of the United States. American's had a lot of land so the people could buy them. Many leaders of the government didn't like the idea of getting more land.

Thomas Jefferson claimed that the purchase would greatly boost westward expansion and promote peace and security (Tindall and Shi 336). Thomas believed that the opportunity to double the size of the United States trumped any legal reservations (Tindall and Shi 337). Thomas Jefferson’s decision to acquire the vast territory was significant in America’s development (Tindall and Shi

The founders of the United States under no circumstances envisioned a country that would seek to rid another of its national sovereignty, after having fought a revolutionary war to gain the right to rule and break away from an empire. The United States evolved into an ever growing country, through ideals such as Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine. America expanded westward, encompassing all land from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, fighting wars and creating treaties to attain the property. With a large population of tax-paying citizens, the US government had the opportunity to invest in land purchases and trade agreements that brought the country to international prominence. The US was one of the top exporters of manufactured

In April 1803, the negotiation was concluded and the entire region of Louisiana was ceded to the United States for the sum of $11,250,000 dollars (LeFeber 182). The American negotiators seized the favorable circumstances to urge the claims of American merchants on the French government for $3,750,00. This important acquisition more than doubled the territory of the United States. The great majority of the nation received the treaty with jubilation, but there were some particularly in the eastern States that disclaimed strenuously against it. They saw in the great enlargement of our territory and was nogthing more thatn a great waste, a wilderness unpeopled with any beings except wolves and wandering Indians. We are to give money of which we have too little for land of which we already have too much (LeFeber 183).

President Thomas Jefferson faced many moral dilemmas during the process of deciding to purchase the territory, the moral predicaments that president Thomas Jefferson faced was going against the constitution, going in major debt to pay for the territory, and also faced many issues with foreign policy almost exclusively between the countries Spain and France. President Jefferson was put in a situation that no other leader of our young country had ever been in, and he stressed about breaking his own moral code to make the correct decision for his nation.

President Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana territory from the French government for fifteen million dollars in 1803. The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the Unites States and stretched from The Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans. Jefferson strongly believed that the key to a nation’s health was expanding westward. He believed that a republic needed an independent and virtuous citizenry for its survival, along with the belief that independence and virtue went together with land ownership, specifically the ownership of small farms. If Jefferson was to provide enough land for the yeomen, the United States would have to expand more. The most defining themes in nineteenth century American history is the westward expansion.

Thomas Jefferson faced a multitude of complications and benefits throughout the endeavor of the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase is highly regarded as the greatest achievement of American expansion since the establishment of the country. This transaction between France and America gave the necessary requirements to recover and even advance the weak U.S. economy. America paid France $15 million for an estimated 800,000 acres of land; making this the largest land deal in history. Despite the many advantages that the Louisiana Purchase had to offer, Thomas Jefferson, the current president of the time faced many conflicts in the process of retrieving the land. The whole ordeal offered a combination of advantages and disadvantages that spanned from political, financial, and philosophical.

“One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” does that sound familiar? If so, it is because nearly everyone in America knows these words like the back of their hand. However, most do not consider their importance. These words are a part of the Pledge of Allegiance. Pay attention to the beginning, “one nation,” a nation that changed significantly with the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase added 828,000 square miles which doubled the land area of the United States (history.com 1). The importance of the Louisiana Purchase can be best appreciated by understanding why this purchase was considered significant to the United States, why France agreed to sell such a sizable amount of land, and how the Louisiana Purchase changed the United States forever.

Today we take for granted all that Minnesota has to offer. We never stop to think why or who. There are many significant people we have to thank for what we have here in Minnesota. Zebulon Pike, Josiah Snelling, Henry Sibley, Alexander Ramsey and Dredd Scott are individuals who politically economically and culturally identified Minnesota.

What was known as Louisiana Territory extended from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west, and from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to the Canadian outskirt in the north. Part or all of 15 states were in the long run made from the land bargain, which is viewed as a standout amongst the most critical accomplishments of Thomas Jefferson's administration. The Louisiana Purchase had added tremendous new regions to the U.S.A., and a choice must be made about which regions would be slave-states and which would be free-states. At the point when the Missouri domain came up for confirmation, Congress decided that it could be a slave-state, on condition that there were no more slave-states North of the parallel that denoted

Before Thomas Jefferson ever entered the presidency, he believed in the “Empire of Liberty.” He wrote in a letter to a friend that “Our confederacy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, North or South, is to be peopled.” His motives for the intense eye on American expansion were greatness for his country, as well as for himself. He was disgusted with the idea of North America being divided into nation-states like Europe. His goal was for the ideals of the American Revolution to spread over the whole continent. He passed and helped pass some of the legislation that helped early America expand. He co-authored the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which allowed for states to be made from the territory east of the Mississippi and

The Louisiana Purchase impacted the United States significantly. On April 30th of 1803, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbe Marbois in Paris, France. This was the territory that France sold to the United States.1 Both the agriculture and the economy got substantially boosted due to this territory. The Louisiana Purchase had an impact on the United States agriculturally, economically, and to advance imperialistic goals.

On April 30th, 1803, the United States doubled its land area when the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed making the 828,000 square miles of the Louisiana territory a part of the New World. After the exchange of $15 million to France in exchange for Louisiana, France’s influence in the United States was demolished. When the proposition of purchasing the Louisiana territory arose, Thomas Jefferson had many diverse opinions whether the addition would have a positive or negative effect on the future of the United States.