The Louisiana Purchase:
In 1803, the newly founded United States of America purchased the Louisiana Territory in North America for the sum of $11,250,000. This territory was enormous, 828,800 square miles and used to be owned by France. This purchase created an area containing fifteen of the current states and two Canadian provinces. Approximately 23% of today’s U.S. territory. To understand the reason of this purchase, I will first detail the Louisiana Territory’s history followed by the negotiations, the treaties that were signed and the difficulties encountered. In conclusion I will explain why this purchase was essential for the United States. Louisiana territory had belonged to many others countries before the United States. From 1682-1762 Louisiana was a French colony, claimed by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in the name of Louis XIV. The French king did not have any particular interest in creating colonies in the New World, so the colony did not develop itself due to the lack of human and financial resources. Later France entered the French and Indian War, 1754-1763, and was defeated by England. After this war the French were forced to cede Western Louisiana and New Orleans to Spain and also lost Canada and Eastern Louisiana to the British, the first Treaty of Paris.
The Spanish, who now owned a big part of the Louisiana territory, were slow to send officials to the new colony. It took them nearly three years, as the Spanish Secretary of State was against the acquisition of Louisiana. He said it would not benefit Spain since Florida had been lost to the British. He consequently resigned and in 1765, a new Secretary of State took office. He named the first governor of Louisiana, who arrived in 1766, three years after the transfer at the Treaty of Paris, in a colony where the people still acted as French subject and felt they had been abandoned by their King Louis XIV. In 1783 the second Treaty of Paris had Great Britain return Florida to Spain