In 1762, during the French and Indian War, France ceded its America territory west of the Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred nearly all of its remaining North American holdings to Great Britain. In 1801, Spain signed a secret treaty with France to return Louisiana Territory to France.

The Louisiana Purchase eventually doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers of the federal Constitution.

The Louisiana Purchase (1803) was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.

French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle first claimed the Louisiana Territory, which he named for King Louis XIV, during a 1682 canoe expedition down the Mississippi River.

President Thomas Jefferson had many reasons for wanting to acquire the Louisiana Territory. The reasons included future protection, expansion, prosperity and the mystery of unknown lands.

American diplomats Robert Livingston and James Monroe purchased the Louisiana Territory from the French for $15 million dollars, or four cents an acre, in 1803. In late April 1803, with the stroke of a pen and the exchange of just $15 million, the United States nearly doubled in size.

Yet it was the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 that brought the issue of Indian sovereignty into question and initiated an era of court decisions removing many tribes from their established lands east of the Mississippi River. Therefore, 1803–1840 is considered the era of removal.

A positive effect of the Louisiana purchase was that people were allowed to go out into the wilderness and fend for themselves, while gathering plenty of resources. This made society more democratic, which greatly helped Jackson during his presidential campaign.

Cajun and Creole food are both native to Louisiana and can be found in restaurants throughout New Orleans. One of the simplest differences between the two cuisine types is that Creole food typically uses tomatoes and tomato-based sauces while traditional Cajun food does not.

Creole, Spanish Criollo, French Créole, originally, any person of European (mostly French or Spanish) or African descent born in the West Indies or parts of French or Spanish America (and thus naturalized in those regions rather than in the parents’ home country).