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Map
of North American Geopolitical Divisions - 1803 In 1803 the
United States included 17 States, including Ohio which was admitted to
the Union in that year. 1803
was also the year in which the United States completed negotiating the sale of the
Louisiana Territory from France, although the United States would not
officially take possession of the territory until March 10, 1804.
France had previously ceded the territory to Spain in the 1760’s,
to prevent the British from subverting the Indians in the territory, and
thus taking control of the region. Napoleon’s rise to power in France, lead to a
renewal of French dreams of empire. These
dreams were not only limited to continental Europe, but also extended to
North America. Napoleon
pressured the Spanish king, and secretly negotiated for the return of the
Louisiana Territory to France. By the time the
negotiations were complete, Napoleon had realized that the costs of
European wars were draining the French treasury.
Thomas Jefferson
having learned of the secret negotiations made it known that the United
States was interested in acquiring the territory.
Jefferson was extremely concerned about having another imperial
power along the border of the United States (with Britain already along
the northern boundary). He was
also a proponent of the concept of Manifest Destiny, a view that the
ultimately the United States would become a continent spanning nation.
Napoleon, to his credit, recognized that although he held title to
the territory, he had no ability to enforce it’s boundaries.
If the Americans came, he would be unable to prevent them even if
he could get an army mobilized to Louisiana.
He is quoted “Sixty million francs for an (French)
occupation that will not perhaps last a day!”
He was also aware of what he was doing to Britain, a centuries long
enemy of France “The sale assures forever the power of the United
States, and I have given England a rival who, sooner or later, will humble
her pride.” The purchase was
criticized severely by many at the time.
A Boston Federalist newspaper wrote about the purchase “… a
great waste, a wilderness un-peopled with any beings at all: except wolves
and wandering Indians. We are
to give money of which we have too little for land of which we already
have too much.” From a historical
perspective this was a brilliant move by Thomas Jefferson.
Henry Adams best expresses the optimism with which Jefferson
pursued the purchase by writing “The annexation of Louisiana was an
event so portentous as to defy measurement, it gave a new face to
politics, and ranked in historical importance next to the Declaration of
Independence and the adoption of the Constitution ….but as a matter of
diplomacy it was unparalleled, because it cost almost nothing.” The western and
northern bounds of the territory were only vaguely known at best.
The best claim to this vast territory would be established by
occupation. Jefferson quickly
sent Lewis and Clark out on a survey mission to determine the resources,
peoples, wildlife, rivers and geography of the territory.
Even though the territory was now part of the United States, the
ever suspicious Spanish authorities decided the purpose of the Lewis and
Clarks expedition was for spying and they sent out several military
expeditions to either turn back Lewis and Clark, or arrest them.
Fortunately these expeditions never even got close enough that
Lewis and Clark even heard about them.
In 1803 New Spain
would include those parts of the continent west and south of the Louisiana
Territory. Old and New Mexico
had numerous settlements, as did coastal California and its inland
valleys. The inland areas of
New Spain were unsettled, undeveloped and only sparsely explored.
This portion of New Spain was valuable primarily as a wilderness
buffer, separating the settled areas of New Spain from its rivals, Britain
and the United States. The Russians
would continue to occupy the Pacific coastal areas of Alaska and Canada by
scattered settlements, and by marine trader/hunters who were exploiting
the fur resources of the area. The
Russians would not extend their influence south until 1812 when they
established Fort Ross in what would become California.
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