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In 1803 the United States negotiated the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. With a stroke of a pen America doubled in size, making it one of the largest nations in the world.
The sale included over 600 million acres at a cost of less than 3 cents an acre in what today is the better part of 13 states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
For President Thomas Jefferson it was a diplomatic and political triumph. In one fell swoop the purchase of Louisiana ended the threat of war with France and opened up the land west of the Mississippi to settlement.
By any measure the purchase of Louisiana was the most important action of Jefferson's two terms as president. Jefferson knew that acquiring the very heart of the American continent would prove to be the key to the future of the United States.
Initially Jefferson through his minister to France Robert Livingston offered Napoleon $2 million for a small tract of land on the lower Mississippi. There Americans could build their own seaport. Impatient at the lack of news, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to offer $10 million for New Orleans and West Florida. Almost at the same time, and unbeknownst to Jefferson, France had offered all of Louisiana to Livingston for $15 million.
Though the transaction was quickly sealed, there were those who objected to the purchase on the grounds that the Constitution did not provide for purchasing territory. However, Jefferson temporarily set aside his idealism to tell his supporters in Congress that "what is practicable must often control what is pure theory." The majority agreed.
Jefferson later admitted that he had stretched his power "till it cracked" in order to buy Louisiana, the largest single land purchase in American history. As a result, generations of Americans for nearly 200 years have been the beneficiaries of Jefferson's noble vision of America and his efforts at expanding the continent.
http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/maps/louisianapurchase/
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When was Louisiana made?
1803, that was the louisiana was made,1803
When did US bought Louisiana from France?
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 for $15 million.
When did America acquire the Louisiana Purchase?
The date of the Louisiana Purchase was April 30, 1803
When did the US get the Louisiana Purchase?
Lewis and Clark finally reached Louisiana in 1803.
When the Louisiana state capitol was built?
It was built in 1803
In what year did the US purchase the Louisiana Territory?
The Louisiana Territory had been a land purchase transaction by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles of the French territory 'Louisiane' in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), a total cost of $15,000,000 for the Louisiana territory.
When was Louisiana purchased?
1803
When did napoleon sell Louisiana territory to the us?
1803
The Louisiana Purchase occurred in what year?
It occured in the year of 1803.
When was Louisiana territory was bought?
Louisiana territory was purchased in 1803
What land did the United States purchase from France in 1803?
Napoleon sold the colony of Louisiana to the US in 1803.
What did America buy from France in 1803?
Louisiana purchase, for four cents an acre or 15 million dollars total.
