![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In mid-April 1803, shortly before Monroe’s arrival, the French asked a surprised Livingston if the United States was interested in purchasing all of Louisiana Territory. president James Monroe to Paris to aid Livingston in the New Orleans purchase talks. Louisiana Purchase Negotiationsįrance was slow in taking control of Louisiana, but in 1802 Spanish authorities, apparently acting under French orders, revoked a U.S.-Spanish treaty that granted Americans the right to store goods in New Orleans. Livingston was ordered to negotiate with French Finance Minister Barbé-Marbois for the purchase of New Orleans. minister to France Robert Livingston, President Thomas Jefferson stated, “The day that France takes possession of New Orleans…we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation.” officials feared that France, resurgent under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte, would soon seek to dominate the Mississippi River and access to the Gulf of Mexico. Since the late 1780s, Americans had been moving westward into the Ohio River and Tennessee River valleys, and these settlers were highly dependent on free access to the Mississippi River and the strategic port of New Orleans. Reports of the retrocession caused considerable unease in the United States. And in 1801, Spain signed a secret treaty with France to return the Louisiana Territory to France. In 1796, Spain allied itself with France, leading Britain to use its powerful navy to cut off Spain from America. Spain, no longer a dominant European power, did little to develop Louisiana during the next three decades. In 1762, during the French and Indian War, France ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to Spain and in 1763 transferred nearly all of its remaining North American holdings to Great Britain. Beginning in the 17th century, France explored the Mississippi River valley and established scattered settlements in the region.īy the middle of the 18th century, France controlled more of the present-day United States than any other European power: from New Orleans northeast to the Great Lakes and northwest to modern-day Montana. ![]()
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