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: -Jefferson feared that the French wanted to establish an America empire that would restrict access from the northwest to the rest of the United States. At first Jefferson only wanted to purchase the city of New Orleans to ensure American access to the Mississippi River and trade routes to the eastern America.

Detailed explanation-3: -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.