USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Acquisition of Louisiana was a long-term goal of President Thomas Jefferson, who was especially eager to gain control of the crucial Mississippi River port of New Orleans. Jefferson tasked James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston with purchasing New Orleans.

Detailed explanation-2: -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.

Detailed explanation-3: -When France offered to sell the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803, Jefferson wanted to seize the opportunity to double the size of the nation and to provide future generations with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of new farmland.

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -New Orleans was a port city with stores of supplies that could be seized. Control of the Mississippi River would have given the British the upper hand in the war. They would have controlled waterways throughout the Louisiana Territory as well as the Port of New Orleans and access to the Gulf of Mexico.