The Luisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase
Thomas Jefferson was elected twice for office. His second election was highly influenced by the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase was the highlight of Jefferson’sfirst term and lead to new heights in the newly-born America. The purchase was successful through Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
First, the Louisiana Purchase was claimed bySpain. Although claimed, tribes still occupied the area. This territory was traded back to France (France had initial claim of the land until they ceded it to Spain after the French and Indian War)for parts of Tuscany. At the time of the treaty, Napoleon did not have the area of Tuscany. He had promised the Spanish that he would conquer the are in the name of Spain. Apart from the land trade,Napoleon also said that the Louisiana Territory would be a neutral zone between Spain’s North American territories and the United States.
Napoleon later abandoned the part of the treaty where he hadto capture Tuscany for Spain. When this happened, Spain and France started disputing. In the middle of this feud, Spain put a hold on the use of the Mississippi River by Americans. Jefferson hated theidea of not being able to trade to the western side, but he also did not want to get in trouble with any foreign country. He decided to send James Monroe to France to offer to buy New Orleans andFlorida.
James Monroe happened to be the luckiest man. Napoleon had encountered a lot of problems in the Caribbean and therefore decided to keep himself and his forces in Europe. Because of this,Napoleon did not really care much about the Louisiana territory anymore. Napoleon’s minister sent Monroe to France to see how much Jefferson would like to offer for the whole Louisiana Territory. The dealincluded Florida and New Orleans, like they had also wanted. After negotiating, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory for 60 million francs.
At first, Jefferson was not sure whether...