The Louisiana Purchase: The Expansion Of America

Many opposed the growth of America and attempted to keep Americans boxed in east of the Mississippi River. Prior to becoming a part of America, the Louisiana Purchase was used as a tool to halt the expansion of the United States of America. Without the insight of Thomas Jefferson, the greed of Napoleon Bonaparte, and a Revolution in Sainte-Domingue the deal may never have happened. Thanks to these events America was able to almost double the amount of land that it owned and paved the way for expansion into the west. The Louisiana Purchase changed hands several times. The original owner of the Louisiana Purchase was France. In 1682 French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle claimed the area for France. He named the 828 thousand
square mile area Louisiana in honor of King Louis XIV. For almost a century the land was only settled by Native Americans, a few scattered settlements and the French Military. Following the French and Indian War, Louisiana was gifted to the Spanish. King Carlos the Third was not any wiser in his use of Louisiana. Instead of growing the Spanish Empire in North America, Carlos the Third simply wanted the land to protect his silver mines in Mexico. In the years following the American Revolution the population of America began to swell. The increase in people also meant that America was looking for ways to settle in the land west of the Mississippi River. The frontiersmen in Kentucky, West Virginia and Tennessee were already using the Mississippi and New Orleans to ship their products to market. It only made sense that they should have settlements on the east and west sides of the Mississippi River. Spanish officials began to recognize the real threat that America could pose to their empire. In an attempt to not only slow down the growth of America but also cripple its economy, Spain closed the lower Mississippi River to Americans in 1787.