USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Jefferson’s men were in Paris because he wanted to buy the port of New Orleans. To him, New Orleans was key: Whoever owned it would be America’s natural enemy because that nation would control the channel through which produce from more than a third of the United States had to pass.

Detailed explanation-2: -As Jefferson had written in April 1802 to the U.S. minister in Paris, Robert R. Livingston, it was crucial that the port of New Orleans remain open and free for American commerce, particularly the goods coming down the Mississippi River.

Detailed explanation-3: -New Orleans is founded. France cedes New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain.

Detailed explanation-4: -President Thomas Jefferson feared that if Louisiana came under French control, American settlers living in the Mississippi River Valley would lose free access to the port of New Orleans.