Bon Anniversaire, Louisiana

On this day in 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France.

The territory had been controlled by the French through most of the 18th century and they had established the port of New Orleans and a few trading posts up the Mississippi. It became a pawn on the chessboard of European politics in 1762 when France ceded it to Spain in the secret Treaty of Fontainbleu as part of France's maneuvering during the Seven Years War.

That was effectively a world war between Britain and its allies vs. France and its allies and spanning five continents. This war in turn exploded out of a colonial war waged between Britain and France for colonial expansion in the late 1750's. The French and Indian War in the Americas was part of that conflict and gave a young George Washington some military experience. The Seven Years War was touched off when Prussia, believing that war in Europe between Britain and France was inevitable, preemptively invaded Saxony and recaptured the prosperous province of Silesia which had been lost to Austria during the War of the Austrian Succession.

So France gave Louisiana to Spain in secret. Following the French defeat in the Seven Years War, they occupied it in fact. The French also lost the province of Canada to the British at that time. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the war, provided 18 months for French citizens who did not want to live under British rule to migrate to other French colonies. Some, from Acadia in Canada, migrated to Louisiana, only discovering it was now part of Spain after they arrived. They set up shop anyway and became Cajuns, but not peacefully, expelling the first Spanish governor in the Rebellion of 1768.

The main issue to the US was free access to the Mississippi and the Port of New Orleans. Spain gave Americans "right of deposit" in New Orleans, to store agricultural goods bound for export, in the Pinckney Treaty of 1795. But the situation became increasingly unstable.

In 1798, Spain revoked that treaty but three years later restored it under a new governor. Meanwhile, also in 1798, France exploded in revolution. The French Republic threatened and sometimes did invade surrounding countries to bring the benefits of revolution to them. By late 1799, Napoleon orchestrated a coup and became First Consul of the Republic, beginning the slide toward empire.

After the execution of the French monarchy, Spain had joined the War of the First Coalition against the French Republic. They lost. This resulted in the loss of the lucrative sugar colony in their half of Hispaniola, the part that later became the Dominican Republic.

In the War of the Second Coalition, Spain allied with France against the British. They lost. More colonies in Trindad and Menorca were ceded. In addition, the Spanish economy had been severely damaged by the British naval blockade that had disrupted Spain's access to imports from America, especially Mexican silver.

Spain was in a tight place economically and that, combined with French ambition, made the return of Louisiana to France attractive to both. In return, Spain got cash and the right to annex territory in Italy, especially the Duchy of Parma which belonged to the King of Spain's son in law. This deal was made in the secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso.

So.

The US needs the right to use the Port of New Orleans. The Port of New Orleans is becoming a pawn in European power politics. It opens, it closes, it opens again, it belongs to France, no Spain, no France again. Napoleon sent a military force to occupy New Orleans, terrifying thousands of Southerners who saw imminent invasion and the loss of their slaves, as the French Republic had abolished the institution.

Thomas Jefferson then sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to France to see if they could negotiation the purchase of New Orleans.

But things were starting to go south for Napoleon. He sent an expedition to reestablish slavery in Haiti and restart the enormously valuable sugar trade. Haiti rebelled. This in itself is a fascinating story but not to the point. The rebellion succeeded, the only successful slave revolt in history, and the resulting economic blow to France was enormous. France needed peace with Britain to create its American empire, but peace was not coming. France needed money and fewer distractions abroad to continue that conflict.

So when Monroe and Livingston asked to purchase New Orleans, Napoleon offered the whole Louisiana territory. The Americans had been prepared to pay up to $10 million just for New Orleans and were dumbfounded by the offer of the entire territory for $15 million. The treaty was signed at the end of April, 1803, only three weeks after it had passed back from Spain to France.

The United States gained control of a vast swath of territory, from the Gulf of Mexico in the South to the edge of Rupert's Land in the North, a British colony surrounding Hudson Bay. It extended from the Mississippi in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West.

Or, more accurately, the United States purchased France's CLAIM to that territory, In reality, the territory belonged to hundreds of Native American tribes, who were to be moved off of it in a series of treaties alternating with wars of extermination that lasted until the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890.