Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana Purchase was made by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon Bonaparte, the ruler of France for $23,213,568. This transaction doubled the geographical size of the United States.

The Louisiana Purchase included all the the current states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska. It also included parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana.

The territory of Louisiana was officially handed from Spain to France on November 29, 1803. The territory was then transferred the United States on December 20, in a ceremony in New Orleans, the French presented it to General James Wilkinson of the United States.

1. "This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride" - Napoleon Bonaparte
2. "Let the land rejoice, for you have bought Louisiana for a song." - General Horatio Gates, 1803
3. "Every eye in the U.S. is now fixed on this affair of Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation." - Thomas Jefferson

• 1795: Pinckney's Treaty signed which allows US to expand to the Mississippi

• 1798: Pinckney's Treaty is revoked by Spain

• 1800: Napoleon returns French control to Louisiana from Spain

• 1801: Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe go to France to negotiate for Louisiana

• 1803: François Barbé-Marbois offers all of the Louisiana Purchase to Livingston for 15 million dollars

• 1803: On July 14, 1803 the treaty reaches Washington, D.C. and is signed