Why Was Washingtons Farewell Address Important? 3) Deutsch, Eberhard P. The Constitutional Controversy Over the Louisiana Purchase. American Bar Association Journal, vol. To learn more about US history, check out this timeline of the history of the United States. II, Sec. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution. [citation needed], After the early explorations, the U.S. government sought to establish control of the region, since trade along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was still dominated by British and French traders from Canada and allied Indians, especially the Sauk and Fox. When Napoleon rose to power he recommitted to recapture the colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) and sent tens of thousands of troops in 1802 to crush the rebellion. Washington University in St. Louis Press. Your email address will not be published. The Louisiana Purchase | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello But although the Americans never asked for it, Napoleon dangled the entire territory in front of them on April 11, 1803. As detailed by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Americans believed that the acquisition and settlement of new lands to the west were critical to the future development of the country. However, in 1800 Spain had ceded the Louisiana territory back to France as part of Napoleon's secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. D. was forced to sell the land after losing a war to the United States. The land that was purchased was very, very cheap. The key to opening the western goal was securing the Mississippi River and the Louisiana Territory. Even though Europeans had ostensibly laid claim to Louisiana for centuries, it remained largely undeveloped, with few wanting to move there. Undercutting them, Jefferson threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction. Since 1762, Spain had owned the territory of Louisiana, which included 828,000 square miles. 3, 1904, pp. 2, 1995, pp. The Library of Congress explains how President Thomas Jefferson realized the precariousness of having France as a neighbor. All four started from the Mississippi River. 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 west of the Mississippi River; the northeastern section of New Mexico; northern portions of Texas; New Orleans and the portions of the present state of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River; and small portions of land within Alberta and Saskatchewan. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle, and the Perdido is the western boundary of Florida. [58] In a freedom suit that went from Missouri to the U.S. Supreme Court, slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in 1836.
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