There were several reasons why Thomas Jefferson believed it was important for the United States to control the Mississippi River. They used the river to transport their crops so they could get their crops to markets where they could be sold. Spain had previously controlled the port of New Orleans.

New Orleans

At first Jefferson only wanted to purchase the city of New Orleans to ensure American access to the Mississippi River and trade routes to the eastern America. The French offered to sale the entire Lousiana Territory instead of just the city of New Orleans. This purchase enabled the vast expansion of the United States.

Jefferson envisioned a nation that would grow beyond the original thirteen colonies and espoused the principle that new states should come into the union on an equal footing with the older states, with full rights, wrote Dumas Malone in Jefferson the President: First Term, 1801 – 1805, the fourth volume of his life of …

President Jefferson endorsed the purchase but believed that the Constitution did not provide the national government with the authority to make land acquisitions. He pondered whether a constitutional amendment might be needed to legalize the purchase.

The Louisiana Purchase widely influenced the economic development of the United States. It essentially doubled the size of the United States and allowed plenty of Americans to migrate west. There were a variety of agricultural opportunities because of the new farmland and forests discovered in the west.

It’s believed that the failure of France to put down a slave revolution in Haiti, the impending war with Great Britain and probable British naval blockade of France – combined with French economic difficulties – may have prompted Napoleon to offer Louisiana for sale to the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase has been described as the greatest real estate deal in history. In 1803 the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory–828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River.

France

On the advice of a French friend, Jefferson offered to purchase land from Napoleon rather than threatening war over it. A treaty, dated April 30 and signed May 2, was then worked out that gave Louisiana to the United States in exchange for $11.25 million, plus the forgiveness of $3.75 million in French debt .

King Louis XIV

The purchase included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, including the entirety of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; large portions of North Dakota and South Dakota; the area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; the portion of Minnesota …

There were several consequences of this significant real estate transaction. The United States greatly increased in size, and now controlled both sides of the primary artery of navigation and commerce in the continent零 interior. Eventually all or portions of a dozen states emerged from the territory.

Most importantly where Texas was concerned, the Louisiana Purchase brought the border of the United States adjacent to the border of Texas…and in some places, the claimed territories overlapped. That certainly sowed some seeds for future conflict!

Major Rivers in Louisiana: Mississippi River, Red River, Ouachita River, Atchafalaya River, Sabine River.