How Did Jefferson Purchase The Louisiana Purchase

Thomas Jefferson’s controversial decision to purchase the Louisiana Territory in 1803 was a major event in American History. The land was conquered by France at the time after it was signed over to them by Spain and they were making plans of having a French empire in North America. These plans were soon to take less of importance by the fact that France had been fighting to try and regain power of their valuable colony of Saint Domingue. Around the same time the American government had been attempting to find ways to gain control over the Mississippi River, President Thomas Jefferson believed the way to do that would be to purchase New Orleans from the French. Because of the loss of their colony and many resources that had been used fighting for it, the French made the decision that they needed all the money they could get. They also saw that there would probably be a slim chance of their empire thriving due to British and Spanish presence nearby. Thomas Jefferson communicated the desire to purchase New Orleans and the French leader at the time, Napoleon Bonaparte, decided to offer the president the whole Louisiana territory. In this essay, we will examine the dilemmas and what came about from the Louisiana Purchase which affected the people, the government, and the industrialization of the United States. …show more content…
There were 15 states that were created out of the whole Louisiana territory. In these states, the government was to decide which ones would allow slavery and which ones would not. Jefferson wanted to encourage the Indians to move west, to stop hunting and start farming. There were many white settlers that had gone over past the Appalachian Mountains and continued to move west. As a result of this, people were faced with the dilemma that there were already many Native American tribes who were living in this area at the time. If the settlers continued going west they could eventually run into problems with the Native