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: -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-3: -Rather than go to war, President Jefferson offered to buy New Orleans and West Florida for up to $10 million. He sent James Monroe to help Robert Livingston negotiate the sale, and if that was not possible, they were to negotiate rights to use the port of New Orleans (called “rights of deposit”).

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -In 1800, Spain secretly ceded Louisiana Territory to France, and closed the port of New Orleans to American farmers. Westerners, left without a port from which to export their goods, exploded with anger.