United States, France, and West Florida, 1803-1807

On April 30, 1803, in one of the great real estate transactions of history, France sold the United States the Louisiana Territory, an immense land with inexact boundaries. Seldom in history has one nation purchased so much for so little. With the signatures of Robert R. Livingston, James Monroe, and Francois de Marbois, America’s land area was almost doubled. At the same moment all differences between France and the United States seemingly were obliterated. Although President Jefferson had previously spoken of a British alliance since he feared Napoleon as a neighbor, he and his fellow Americans now looked to the future confident that their land was destined to span the continent. Meanwhile, the government sought a favorable adjustment of Louisiana’s boundary, especially the acquisition of the strip of Spanish land between the Mississippi and Perdido rivers known as West Florida