Neal G.
Lineback
LOUISIANA
PURCHASE’S 200TH
ANNIVERSARY
CELEBRATION
treaty had only a vague description of
the territory purchased, the full extent of the Louisiana Territory was
not clear. Additionally, the constitutionality of the purchase by the president was questioned, but eventually
the Senate approved the treaty.
Jefferson clearly saw the future of
the United States as extending coast
to coast and sent Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark on their famous
transcontinental journey to assess the
resources of the American West. Even
before they had returned, restless settlers began to follow them across the
Great Plains into the Rockies.
The U.S. purchase of the Louisiana Territory probably encouraged
Spain to sell Florida to the United
States in 1819. Increasing U.S. settlement to the west of the Louisiana
Purchase ultimately led to armed conflicts and a war with Mexico between
1836 and 1848, the results of which
added lands that included Arizona,
California, Texas, Nevada, New
Mexico and Utah.
The Louisiana Purchase 200 years
ago made it all possible. It was a credit
to President Jefferson’s progressive
vision.
And that is Geography in the
News. April 4, 2003. #670.
(The author is a Geography Professor
at Appalachian State University, Boone,
NC.)
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This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, an
event soon to be celebrated across the
United States. The significance of
President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of these French lands in 1803
cannot be overstated.
The Louisiana Purchase was a
bold move by President Jefferson,
doubling the size of the country and
leading to the eventual consolidation
of U.S. lands from the Atlantic to the
Pacific. For a sum of about $15 million, Jefferson purchased 827,967
square miles (2.1 million sq. km.) for
about three cents per acre (seven cents
per h.).
The Louisiana Territory stretched
from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada
and from the Mississippi River to the
Rocky Mountains. It had interested
Europeans for many years, leading to
explorations and scattered river settlements throughout the 1600s and
1700s. The Mississippi and its tributaries were the “highways” of this
period, as trappers, traders, farmers
and plantation owners brought their
goods to Natchez and New Orleans
for export.
New Orleans, near the mouth of
the Mississippi, became the “commercial window” to the ocean and a
chokepoint for the entire river basin.
Whoever controlled New Orleans
commanded considerable economic
control over its trade area. This included territory in the Ohio,
Cumberland and Tennessee valleys
occupied by U.S. settlers in the last
two decades of the 1700s.
Alternately, France and Spain controlled New Orleans. A treaty with
Spain had previously allowed American settlers to use New Orleans dutyfree. By 1800, however, France had
gained tacit ownership of the Louisiana Territory, but under an agreement with Spain that would deny control of New Orleans to any third party.
U.S. President Jefferson believed
U.S. trade down the Mississippi would
be threatened by this agreement. He
feared that Napoleon Bonaparte might
close the “window on the Gulf” to
American goods. Jefferson sent Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister to
Paris, to either try to invalidate the
Spanish-French agreement or to at
least purchase New Orleans.
Livingston was unsuccessful until he shrewdly intimated that the U.S.
and British might be allying. Threatened with the possibility of a European war with Britain and a far-flung
Louisiana Territory adjacent to hostile U.S. territory, Napoleon sold the
Louisiana Territory to Livingston. The
price was $11.3 million, plus $3.7 million in citizen claims against France.
This was a windfall for the United
States, although some doubted its
value at the time.
The purchase exceeded Jefferson’s
wildest dreams, as he had only proposed to solve the problem at New
Orleans. There were, however, some
additional problems. Because the
hi
Geography
in the
News™
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500 km
Geography in the News 4/4/03
Source: World Book, 1987
© 2003 maps.com
Texas
Ceded to
U.S. 1819
Atlantic
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Mississippi
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New Orleans
SPANISH
FLORDIA
Gulf of Mexico
M. Johnson/P. Larkins ©2003 maps.com