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Louisiana Purchase Vente de la Louisiane expansion of the United States ← 1803–1804 →   → Flag of the United States The modern United States, with Louisiana Purchase overlay (in green) History  - Established July 4, 1803  - Disestablished October 1, 1804

1804 map of "Louisiana", edged on the west by the Rocky Mountains.

The Louisiana Purchase (French: Vente de la Louisiane "Sale of Louisiana") was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,000 square miles (2,140,000 km²) of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total sum of 15 million dollars (less than 3 cents per acre) for the Louisiana territory ($233 million in 2011 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre).^[1][2][3]

The Louisiana Purchase encompassed all or part of 15 current U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River; most of North Dakota; nearly all of South Dakota; northeastern New Mexico; northern Texas; the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans. Spain originally had all of the Louisiana Purchase but it was known as New Spain, then eventually was given to France from Spain and was officially known as the Louisiana Purchase, and was later given to the United States of America from France to pay war debt and helped doubled the United States as well as create new states.^{[clarification needed]} (Parts of this area were still claimed by Spain at the time of the purchase.)^[2]

In addition, the purchase contained small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The purchase comprises around 23% of current U.S. territory.^[2] The 1810 census counted the population of whites as 92,345 in the territory.^[4]

The purchase was a achievement in the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. At the time, it faced domestic opposition as being possibly unconstitutional. Although he believed that the U.S. Constitution did not contain any provisions for acquiring territory, Jefferson decided to purchase Louisiana to protect United States trade access to the port of New Orleans and free passage on the Mississippi River. Slavery already existed in the territory. Jefferson supported Congress in passing slavery law for the territory, which contributed to the crisis of the Union a half century later.^[5]

Napoleon Bonaparte, upon completion of the agreement stated, "This accession of territory affirms forever the power of the United States, and I have given England a maritime rival who sooner or later will humble her pride."^[6]

Ceremony at Place d'Armes, New Orleans marking transfer of Louisiana to the United States, 10 March 1804, as depicted by Thure de Thulstrup.

Background[link]

Throughout the later half of the 18th century, Louisiana was a pawn on the chessboard of European politics.^[7] It was originally claimed by Spain, but also claimed by the French, who established most of the colonists as part of New France. Following the Seven Years War and French defeat by Great Britain, Spain gained control of the territory west of the Mississippi River. As the area was being gradually settled by United States migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that it would be acquired "piece by piece." The risk of another power taking it from a weakened Spain would make "profound reconsideration" of this policy necessary.^[7]

The city of New Orleans controlled the Mississippi River due to its location; other locations for ports were attempted, but did not succeed. New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the parts of the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains. Pinckney's Treaty, signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, gave American merchants "right of deposit" in New Orleans, granting them use of the port to store goods for export. Americans used this right to transport products such as flour, tobacco, pork, bacon, lard, feathers, cider, butter, and cheese. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi River, which had become vital to the growing trade of the western territories.^[8]

In 1798 Spain revoked this treaty, prohibiting American use of New Orleans, which greatly upset them. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo took over from the Marquess of Casa Calvo, and restored the right to deposit goods from the United States. Napoleon Bonaparte had gained Louisiana for French ownership from Spain in 1800 under the Treaty of San Ildefonso, after it had been a Spanish colony since 1762. But, the treaty was kept secret. Louisiana remained nominally under Spanish control until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the cession to the United States.

James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston traveled to Paris to negotiate the purchase in 1802. Their interest was only in gaining control of New Orleans and its environs; they did not anticipate the much larger purchase that would follow.

The Louisiana Purchase was by far the largest growth spurt that occurred in the United States because it stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. When Thomas Jefferson purchased this land, he doubled the size of the United States. Before the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Louisiana had been under control of the Spanish from the year 1763. Although Spain was America’s ally in the Revolution, they didn’t want the Americans to settle on their land or territory before America purchased the land. The territory where the Louisiana Purchase is today homed many of the Cajuns after the British forced them to leave from their former home, which was in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although the purchase was thought of as unjust and unconstitutional, Jefferson believed there was no evidence of unconstitutional actions taking place during the purchase of what is now a variety of fifteen states. When reflecting back in history, the Louisiana Purchase could be considered one of Thomas Jefferson’s greatest contributions to the United States.^[9] Stirred by “the fever into which the western mind is thrown by the affair at N. Orleans,” as he once put it, Jefferson penned a letter to Robert Livingston on April 18, 1802, that is surely one of the most emotional letters ever written by an American president. It was an intentional exhortation to make this supposedly mild diplomat strongly warn the French of their perilous course, and no one can doubt Jefferson’s intensity as he wrote it. The letter began: The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France works most sorely on the U.S. On this subject the Secretary of State has written to you fully. Yet I cannot forbear recurring to it personally, so deep is the impression it makes in my mind. It completly reverses all the political relations of the U.S. and will form a new epoch in our political course. Of all nations of any consideration France is the one which hitherto has offered the fewest points on which we could have any conflict of right, and the most points of a communion of interests. From these causes we have ever looked to her as our natural friend, as one with which we never could have an occasion of difference. Her growth therefore we viewed as our own, her misfortunes ours. There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three-eighths of our territory must pass to market, and from its fertility it will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce and contain more than half our inhabitants. France placing herself in that door assumes to us the attitude of defiance. Spain might have retained it quietly for years. Her pacific dispositions, her feeble state, would induce her to increase our facilities there, so that her possession of the place would be hardly felt by us, and it would not perhaps be very long before some circumstance might arise which might make the cession of it to us the price of something of more worth to her. Not so can it ever be in the hands of France. The impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us… Jefferson’s letter went on with the same white heat to a much quoted passage about “the day that France takes possession of New Orleans,” Not only did he say that day would be a low point in France’s history, for it would seal America’s marriage with the British fleet and nation, but he added, astonishingly, that it would start a massive shipbuilding program.^[10]

Negotiation[link]

The original treaty of the Louisiana Purchase

While the sale of the territory by Spain back to France in 1800 went largely unnoticed, fear of an eventual French invasion spread nationwide when, in 1801, Napoleon sent a military force to secure New Orleans. Southerners feared that Napoleon would free all the slaves in Louisiana, which could trigger slave uprisings elsewhere.^[11] Though Jefferson urged moderation, Federalists sought to use this against Jefferson and called for hostilities against France. Undercutting them, Jefferson took up the banner and threatened an alliance with Britain, although relations were uneasy in that direction.^[11] In 1801 Jefferson supported France in its plan to take back Saint-Domingue, then under control of Toussaint Louverture after a slave rebellion.

Jefferson sent Livingston to Paris in 1801 after discovering the transfer of Louisiana from Spain to France under the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso. Livingston was authorized to purchase New Orleans.

In January 1802, France sent General LeClerc to Saint-Domingue to re-establish slavery, reduce the rights of free people of color and take back control of the island from slave rebels. This colony had been the wealthiest for France in the Caribbean, and Napoleon wanted its productivity restored. Alarmed about the French actions and its intention to re-establish empire in North America, Jefferson declared neutrality in relation to the Caribbean, refusing credit and other assistance to the French but allowing war contraband to get through to the rebels to prevent France from getting a foothold again.^[12]

In November 1803, France withdrew its 7,000 surviving troops from Saint-Domingue (more than two-thirds of its troops died there) and gave up its ambitions in the western hemisphere.^[13] In 1804 Haiti declared independence but, fearing a slave revolt at home, Jefferson and the US Congress refused to recognized the new republic, the second in the Western Hemisphere, and imposed a trade embargo against it. This made it difficult for the country to recover after the wars.^[14]

In 1803, Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, a French nobleman, began to help negotiate with France at the request of Jefferson. Du Pont was living in the United States at the time and had close ties to Jefferson as well as the prominent politicians in France. He engaged in back-channel diplomacy with Napoleon on Jefferson's behalf during a visit to France and originated the idea of the much larger Louisiana Purchase as a way to defuse potential conflict between the United States and Napoleon over North America.^[15]

Jefferson disliked the idea of purchasing Louisiana from France, as that could imply that France had a right to be in Louisiana. Jefferson believed that a U.S. President did not have the authority to make such a deal: it was not specified in the Constitution. He also thought that to do so would erode states' rights by increasing federal executive power. On the other hand, he was aware of the potential threat that France could be in that region and was prepared to go to war to prevent a strong French presence there.

Throughout this time, Jefferson had up-to-date intelligence on Napoleon's military activities and intentions in North America. Part of his evolving strategy involved giving du Pont some information that was withheld from Livingston. He also gave intentionally conflicting instructions to the two. Desperate to avoid possible war with France, Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris in 1802 to negotiate a settlement, with instructions to go to London to negotiate an alliance if the talks in Paris failed. Spain procrastinated until late 1802 in executing the treaty to transfer Louisiana to France, which allowed American hostility to build. Also, Spain's refusal to cede Florida to France meant that Louisiana would be indefensible. Monroe had been formally expelled from France on his last diplomatic mission, and the choice to send him again conveyed a sense of seriousness.

Napoleon needed peace with Great Britain to implement the Treaty of San Ildefonso and take possession of Louisiana. Otherwise, Louisiana would be an easy prey for Britain or even for the United States. But in early 1803, continuing war between France and Britain seemed unavoidable. On March 11, 1803, Napoleon began preparing to invade Britain.

A slave revolution in Saint-Domingue (present-day Republic of Haiti) over previous years had resulted in massacres of the planter class. An expeditionary force under Napoleon's brother-in-law Charles Leclerc in January 1802, supplemented by 20,000 troops over the next 21 months, had tried to re-conquer the territory and re-establish slavery. But yellow fever and the fierce resistance of black revolutionaries destroyed the French army in what became the only successful slave revolt in history, and it withdrew its surviving troops in November 1803. In 1804 Haiti became the first independent black state in the New World.^[16]

As Napoleon had failed to re-enslave Haiti, he abandoned his plans to rebuild France's New World empire. Without sufficient revenues from sugar colonies in the Caribbean, Louisiana had little value to him. Spain had not yet completed the transfer of Louisiana to France, and war between France and Britain was imminent. Out of anger against Spain and the unique opportunity to sell something that was useless and not truly his yet, Napoleon decided to sell the entire territory.^[17]

Although the foreign minister Talleyrand opposed the plan, on April 10, 1803, Napoleon told the Treasury Minister François de Barbé-Marbois that he was considering selling the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. On April 11, 1803, just days before Monroe's arrival, Barbé-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15 million, equivalent to about $233 million in present-day values.^[18]

The American representatives were prepared to pay up to $10 million for New Orleans and its environs, but were dumbfounded when the vastly larger territory was offered for $15 million. Jefferson had authorized Livingston only to purchase New Orleans. However, Livingston was certain that the United States would accept the offer.^[19]

The Americans thought that Napoleon might withdraw the offer at any time, preventing the United States from acquiring New Orleans, so they agreed and signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty on April 30, 1803. On July 4, 1803, the treaty reached Washington, D.C.. The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert's Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory would double the size of the United States at a sum of less than 3 cents per acre.

Domestic opposition[link]

The American purchase of the Louisiana territory was not accomplished without domestic opposition. Jefferson's philosophical consistency was in question because of his strict interpretation of the Constitution. Many people believed he, and other Jeffersonians such as James Madison, were being hypocritical by doing something they surely would have argued against with Alexander Hamilton. The Federalists strongly opposed the purchase, favoring close relations with Britain over closer ties to Napoleon, and were concerned that the United States had paid a large sum of money just to declare war on Spain.^{[citation needed]}

Both Federalists and Jeffersonians were concerned about whether the purchase was unconstitutional. Many members of the United States House of Representatives opposed it. Majority Leader John Randolph led the opposition. The House called for a vote to deny the request for the purchase, but it failed by two votes, 59–57. The Federalists even tried to prove the land belonged to Spain, not France, but available records proved otherwise.^[20]

The Federalists also feared that the political power of the Atlantic seaboard states would be threatened by the new citizens of the west, bringing about a clash of western farmers with the merchants and bankers of New England. There was concern that an increase in the number of slave-holding states created out of the new territory would exacerbate divisions between north and south as well. A group of northern Federalists led by Massachusetts Senator Timothy Pickering went so far as to explore the idea of a separate northern confederacy.

Another concern was whether it was proper to grant citizenship to the French, Spanish, and free black people living in New Orleans, as the treaty would dictate. Critics in Congress worried whether these "foreigners", unacquainted with democracy, could or should become citizens.^[21]

Most domestic objections were politically settled, overridden, or simply hushed up. One problem, however, was too important to argue down convincingly: Napoleon did not have the right to sell Louisiana to the United States. The sale violated the 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso in several ways. Furthermore, France had promised Spain it would never sell or alienate Louisiana to a third party. Napoleon, Jefferson, Madison, and the members of Congress all knew this during the debates about the purchase in 1803. They ignored the fact it was illegal. Spain protested strongly, and Madison made some attempt to justify the purchase to the Spanish government, but was unable to do so convincingly. So, he tried continuously until results had been proven remorsefully inadequate.^[21]

That the Louisiana Purchase was illegal was described pointedly by the historian Henry Adams, who wrote: "The sale of Louisiana to the United States was trebly invalid; if it were French property, Bonaparte could not constitutionally alienate it without the consent of the Chambers; if it were Spanish property, he could not alienate it at all; if Spain had a right of reclamation, his sale was worthless."^[21]

Treaty signing[link]

Issue of 1953, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of signing

On Saturday, April 30, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed by Robert Livingston, James Monroe, and Barbé Marbois in Paris. Jefferson announced the treaty to the American people on July 4. After the signing of the Louisiana Purchase agreement in 1803, Livingston made this famous statement, "We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives...From this day the United States take their place among the powers of the first rank."^[22]

The United States Senate ratified the treaty with a vote of twenty-four to seven on October 20. On the following day, it authorized President Jefferson to take possession of the territory and establish a temporary military government. In legislation enacted on October 31, Congress made temporary provisions for local civil government to continue as it had under French and Spanish rule and authorized the President to use military forces to maintain order. Plans were also set forth for several missions to explore and chart the territory, the most famous being the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

France turned New Orleans over on December 20, 1803 at The Cabildo. On March 10, 1804, a formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis to transfer ownership of the territory from France to the United States.

Effective on October 1, 1804, the purchased territory was organized into the Territory of Orleans (most of which became the state of Louisiana) and the District of Louisiana, which was temporarily under the control of the governor and judges of the Indiana Territory.

Boundaries[link]

The Purchase was one of several territorial additions to the U.S.

A dispute immediately arose between Spain and the United States regarding the extent of Louisiana. The territory's boundaries had not been defined in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau that ceded it from France to Spain, nor the 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso ceding it back to France, nor the 1803 Louisiana Purchase agreement ceding it to the United States.^[23]

The United States claimed Louisiana included the entire western portion of the Mississippi River drainage basin to the crest of the Rocky Mountains and land extending southeast to the Rio Grande and West Florida.^[24] Spain insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis.^[25] The dispute was ultimately resolved by the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, with the United States gaining most of what it had claimed in the west.

The relatively narrow Louisiana of New Spain had been a special province under the jurisdiction of the Captaincy General of Cuba while the vast region to the west was in 1803 still considered part of the Commandancy General of the Provincias Internas. Louisiana had never been considered to be one of New Spain's internal provinces.^[26]

If the territory included all the tributaries of the Mississippi on its western bank, the northern reaches of the Purchase extended into the equally ill-defined British possession—Rupert's Land of British North America, now part of Canada. The Purchase originally extended just beyond the 50th parallel. However, the territory north of the 49th parallel (including the Milk River and Poplar River watersheds) was ceded to the UK in exchange for parts of the Red River Basin south of 49th parallel in the Anglo-American Convention of 1818.

The eastern boundary of the Louisiana purchase was the Mississippi River, from its source to the 31st parallel, although the source of the Mississippi was, at the time, unknown. The eastern boundary below the 31st parallel was unclear; the U.S. claimed the land as far as the Perdido River, and Spain claimed the border of its Florida Colony remained the Mississippi river. In early 1804, Congress passed the Mobile Act which recognized West Florida as being part of the United States. The Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain (1819) resolved the issue upon ratification in 1821. Today, the 31st parallel is the northern boundary of the western half of the Florida Panhandle, and the Perdido is the western boundary of Florida.

Because the western boundary was contested at the time of the Purchase, President Jefferson immediately began to organize three missions to explore and map the new territory. All three started from the Mississippi River. The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804) traveled up the Missouri River; the Red River Expedition (1806) explored the Red River basin; the Pike Expedition (1806) also started up the Missouri, but turned south to explore the Arkansas River watershed. The maps and journals of the explorers helped to define the boundaries during the negotiations leading to the Adams–Onís Treaty, which set the western boundary as follows: north up the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico to its intersection with the 32nd parallel, due north to the Red River, up the Red River to the 100th meridian, north to the Arkansas River, up the Arkansas River to its headwaters, due north to the 42nd parallel and due west to the Pacific Ocean.

Plan of Fort Madison, built in 1808 to establish U.S. control over the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase; drawn 1810.

Slavery[link]

Governing the Louisiana Territory was more difficult than acquiring it. Its European peoples, of ethnic French, Spanish and Mexican descent, were largely Catholic; in addition, there was a large slave population made up of a high proportion of recent arrivals from Africa, as Spain had continued the international slave trade. There was a large slave population in the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, as well as a large class of free people of color. Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri also had some people holding slaves.

Some slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory and slaves might inspire American slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. Southerners wanted the US to establish slavery law in Louisiana, so they could be supported in taking their slaves to the new territory to undertake new agricultural developments, as well as to reduce the threat of future slave revolts.^[5]

The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but trying to encompass the preceding French and Spanish rule (for instance, Spain had prohibited slavery of Native Americans in 1769, but some slaves of mixed African-Native American descent were still being held in St. Louis when the US took over the Louisiana Territory).^[27] In a freedom suit that went from Missouri to the US Supreme Court, slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in 1836.^[27] The institutionalization of slavery under US territorial law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later.^[5] As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being admitted as slave states. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution.

Asserting U.S. possession[link]

After the early explorations, the U.S. government sought to establish control of the region, since trade along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was still dominated by British and French traders from Canada and allied Indians, especially the Sauk and Fox. The United States adapted the former Spanish facility at Fort Bellefontaine as a fur trading post near St. Louis in 1804 for business with the Sauk and Fox.^[28] In 1808 two military forts with trading factories were built, Fort Osage along the Missouri River in western present-day Missouri and Fort Madison along the Upper Mississippi River in eastern present-day Iowa.^[29] With tensions increasing with Great Britain, in 1809 Fort Bellefontaine was converted to a US military fort, and used for that purpose until 1826.

During the War of 1812, Great Britain and allied Indians defeated U.S. forces in the Upper Mississippi; the US abandoned both Fort Osage and Fort Madison, as it did several U.S. forts built during the war, including Fort Johnson and Fort Shelby. After U.S. ownership of the region was confirmed in the Treaty of Ghent (1814), the U.S. built or expanded forts along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, including adding to Fort Bellefontaine, and constructing Fort Armstrong (1816) and Fort Edwards (1816) in Illinois, Fort Crawford (1816) in Prairie du Chien Wisconsin, Fort Snelling (1819) in Minnesota, and Fort Atkinson (1819) in Nebraska.^[29]

Financing[link]

The American government used $3 million in gold as a down payment, and issued bonds for the balance to pay France for the purchase. Earlier that year, Francis Baring and Company of London had become the U.S. government's official banking agent in London. Because of this favored position, the US asked the Baring firm to handle the transaction. Francis Baring's son Alexander was in Paris at the time and helped in the negotiations.^[30] Another Baring advantage was a close relationship with Hope and Company of Amsterdam. The two banking houses worked together to facilitate and underwrite the Purchase. Because Napoleon wanted to receive his money as quickly as possible, the two firms received the American bonds and paid cash to France.^[30]

(The original sales document of the Louisiana Purchase was exhibited in the entrance hall of the Barings London offices until the bank's collapse in 1995. It is now held by ING Group, which purchased Barings.^[31] The original handwritten proclamation signed by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison, that informed the American public of the landmark deal of the Louisiana Purchase, was acquired in 1996 by Walter Scott Jr. of Omaha, Nebraska, who holds it in his private collection.^[32])

Nature of sale[link]

The historian James Loewen is among those who assert that the United States purchased only France's claim to the Louisiana Territory, as the land belonged to the tribes who inhabited the area. In his view, the US acquired the lands slowly throughout the nineteenth century by purchases from individual Native American tribes and by wars against them.^[33] The question is discussed at length in the article on Aboriginal title in the United States, as well as in articles on the American Indian Wars and the U.S. Supreme Court case Johnson v. M'Intosh ().

The issue of the legitimacy of the Louisiana Purchase is similar to that of the 1867 Alaska Purchase. In that case, the land rights were resolved more than 100 years later with the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Some Alaska Natives continue to resent the Alaska Federation of Natives' lack of legitimacy to act on their behalf.^[34][35] See also Indian Land Claims Settlements for other cases where native land title claims were extinguished with monetary compensation.

The proceeds[link]

Despite issuing orders that the 60 million francs were to be spent on the construction of five new canals in France, Bonaparte spent the whole amount on his planned invasion of the United Kingdom.^[36]

See also[link]

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• Franco-American alliance
• List of French possessions and colonies
  • New France
• Historic regions of the United States
• Territorial evolution of the United States
  • Territories of Spain that encompassed land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase:
    • Florida, 1565–1763
    • Santa Fé de Nuevo Méjico, 1598–1821
    • Tejas, 1690–1821
    • Luisiana, 1764–1803
    • Florida Occidental, 1783–1821
  • Territory of France that encompassed land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase:
    • Louisiane, 1682–1764 and 1803
  • U.S. territories that encompassed land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase:
    • Territory of Orleans, 1804–1812
    • District of Louisiana, 1804–1805
    • Territory of Louisiana, 1805–1812
    • Territory of Missouri, 1812–1821
    • Territory of Arkansas, 1819–1836
    • Indian Territory, 1834–1907
    • Territory of Iowa, 1838–1849
    • Territory of Minnesota, 1849–1858
    • Territory of New Mexico, 1850–1912
    • Territory of Kansas, 1854–1861
    • Territory of Nebraska, 1854–1867
    • Territory of Colorado, 1861–1876
    • Territory of Dakota, 1861–1889
    • Territory of Montana, 1864–1889
    • Territory of Wyoming, 1868–1890
    • Territory of Oklahoma, 1890–1907
  • U.S. states that encompass land that was part of the Louisiana Purchase:
    • State of Louisiana, 1812
    • State of Missouri, 1821
    • State of Arkansas, 1836
    • State of Texas, 1845
    • State of Iowa, 1849
    • State of Minnesota, 1858
    • State of Kansas, 1861
    • State of Nebraska, 1867
    • State of Colorado, 1876
    • State of North Dakota, 1889
    • State of South Dakota, 1889
    • State of Montana, 1889
    • State of Wyoming, 1890
    • State of Oklahoma, 1907
    • State of New Mexico, 1912
• Territorial evolution of Canada
  • Provinces of Canada that encompass land in the Missouri River drainage basin:
    • Saskatchewan, 1905
    • Alberta, 1905

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Herring, George. From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, Oxford University Press, 2008 ISBN 0-19-976553-7

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louisiana Purchase

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Louisiana Purchase Treaty

• Text of the Louisiana Purchase Treaty
• Library of Congress – Louisiana Purchase Treaty
• Teaching about the Louisiana Purchase
• Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial 1803–2003
• New Orleans/Louisiana Purchase 1803
• The Haitian Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase
• Lewis and Clark Trail
• Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark student and teacher guide: dates, people, analysis, multimedia
• Case and Controversies in U.S. History, Page 42 Senator Pickering explains his opposition to the Louisiana Purchase, 1803.
• Booknotes interview with Jon Kukla on A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America, July 6, 2003.

v t e Territorial expansion of the United States Concept: Manifest destiny Thirteen Colonies (1776) · Treaty of Paris (1783) · Louisiana Purchase (1803) · Red River Cession (1818) · Adams–Onís Treaty (1819) · Texas Annexation (1845) · Oregon Treaty (1846) · Mexican Cession (1848) · Gadsden Purchase (1853) · Guano Islands Act (1856) · Alaska Purchase (1867) · Annexation of Hawaii (1898) · Treaty of Paris (1898) · Treaty of the Danish West Indies (1917)

v t e French overseas empire Former v t e Former French colonies in Africa and the Indian Ocean Maghreb Algeria Morocco Arguin Island Tunisia French West Africa Côte d'Ivoire Dahomey French Sudan Guinea Mauritania Niger Senegal Upper Volta   French Togoland James Island Albreda French Equatorial Africa Chad Gabon Middle Congo Ubangi-Shari French Cameroons French Comoros Anjouan Grande Comore Mohéli   French Somaliland (Djibouti) Madagascar Ile de France French Seychelles v t e Former French colonies in the Americas New France 1655–1763 Acadia Louisiana Canada Terre Neuve Inini Berbice Saint-Domingue Haiti Tobago Virgin Islands France Antarctique Equinoctial France French West India Company v t e Former French colonies in Asia and Oceania French India Chandernagor Coromandel Coast Madras Mahé Pondichéry Karaikal Yanaon Indochinese Union Cambodia Laos Vietnam Annam Cochinchina Tonkin Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, China French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon State of Syria Aleppo Damascus Alawite State Greater Lebanon Jabal al-Druze Sanjak of Alexandretta Oceania New Hebrides Vanuatu France–Asia relations French East India Company Present v t e Overseas departments and territories of France   Inhabited areas Overseas departments1 French Guiana Guadeloupe Martinique Réunion Mayotte2 Overseas collectivities French Polynesia St. Barthélemy St. Martin St. Pierre and Miquelon Wallis and Futuna Special status New Caledonia   Uninhabited areas Pacific Ocean Clipperton Island French Southern and Antarctic Lands Île Amsterdam Île Saint-Paul Crozet Islands Kerguelen Islands Adélie Land Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean Banc du Geyser4 Bassas da India4 Europa Island4 Glorioso Islands3, 4, 5 Juan de Nova Island4 Tromelin Island4, 5 1 Also known as overseas regions 2 Claimed by Comoros 3 Claimed by Madagascar 4 Claimed by Seychelles 5 Claimed by Mauritius

State of Louisiana
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Bayou State • Child of the Mississippi Creole State • Pelican State (official) Sportsman's Paradise • Sugar State
Motto(s): Union, Justice and Confidence Union, justice, et confiance (French) Lunyon, Jistis, é Konfyans (Louisiana Creole)
Official language(s)	None (English and French de facto)
Demonym	Louisianan, Louisianais (French) Lwizyané(èz) (Creole)
Capital	Baton Rouge
Largest city	New Orleans[1][2][3]
Largest metro area	Greater New Orleans
Area	Ranked 31st in the U.S.
- Total	51,843 sq mi (135,382 km2)
- Width	130 miles (210 km)
- Length	379 miles (610 km)
- % water	15
- Latitude	28° 56′ N to 33° 01′ N
- Longitude	88° 49′ W to 94° 03′ W
Population	Ranked 25th in the U.S.
- Total	4,574,836 (2011 est)[4]
- Density	105/sq mi  (40.5/km2) Ranked 24th in the U.S.
Elevation
- Highest point	Driskill Mountain[5][6] 535 ft (163 m)
- Mean	100 ft  (30 m)
- Lowest point	New Orleans[5][6] -8 ft (-2.5 m)
Before statehood	Territory of Orleans
Admission to Union	April 30, 1812 (18th)
Governor	Bobby Jindal (R)
Lieutenant Governor	Jay Dardenne (R)
Legislature	State Legislature
- Upper house	State Senate
- Lower house	House of Representatives
U.S. Senators	Mary Landrieu (D) David Vitter (R)
U.S. House delegation	6 Republicans, 1 Democrat (list)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Abbreviations	LA US-LA
Website	louisiana.gov

Louisiana (ⁱ/luːˌiːziˈænə/ or ⁱ/ˌluːziˈænə/; French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] ( listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.

Much of the state was formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp.^[7] These contain a rich southern biota; typical examples include birds such as ibis and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species including many species of orchids and carnivorus plants.^[7]

Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish, Native American (Indian) and African cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S. Before the American influx and statehood at the beginning of the 19th century, the territory of current Louisiana State had been a Spanish and French colony. In addition, the pattern of development included importing numerous African slaves in the 18th century, with many from the same region of West Africa, thus concentrating their culture.

Toponym[link]

Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643–1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis".^[8] Once part of the French Colonial Empire, the Louisiana Territory stretched from present-day Mobile Bay to just north of the present-day Canadian border, and included a small part of what is now southwestern Canada.

Geology[link]

Even the Gulf of Mexico did not exist 250 million years ago when there was but one supercontinent, Pangea. As Pangea split apart, the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico opened. Louisiana was, then, slowly built, over millions of years, from water into land, and from north to south. ^[7] The oldest rocks are exposed in the north, in areas like Kistachie National Forest. The oldest rocks date back only to the early Tertiary Era, some 60 million years ago. The best history of the formation of these rocks can be found in Spearing, Geolgoical History of Lousiana^[9].

The youngest parts of the state were formed over the last 7,500 years as deltas of the Mississippi River: The Maringouin, Teche, St. Bernard, Lafourche, the modern Mississippi, and now the Atchafalaya^[10]. The sediments were carried from north to south by the Mississippi River.

In between the Tertiary rocks of the north, and the relatively new sediments along the coast, is a vast belt known as the Pleistocene Terraces. Their age and distribution can be largely related to the rise and fall of sea levels during past ice ages. In general, the northern terraces have had sufficient time for rivers to cut deep channels, while the newer terraces tend to be much flatter.^[11]

Salt domes are also found in Louisiana. Their origin can be traced back to the early Gulf of Mexico, when the shallow ocean had high rates of evaporation. There are several hundred salt domes in the state; one of the most familar is Avery Island.^[12] Salt domes are important not only as a source of salt; they also serve as underground traps for oil and gas.^[13]

Geography[link]

Map of Louisiana

Aerial view of Louisiana wetland habitats.

A field of yellow wildflowers in Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana

Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana

Topography[link]

Louisiana is bordered to the west by Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by the state of Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.

The surface of the state may properly be divided into two parts, the uplands of the north, and the alluvial along the coast. The alluvial region includes low swamp lands, coastal marshlands and beaches, and barrier islands that cover about 20,000 square miles (52,000 km²). This area lies principally along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River, which traverses the state from north to south for a distance of about 600 miles (1,000 km) and empties into the Gulf of Mexico; the Red River; the Ouachita River and its branches; and other minor streams (some of which are called bayous). The breadth of the alluvial region along the Mississippi is from 10 to 60 miles (15 to 100 km), and along the other rivers the alluvial region averages about 10 miles (15 km) across. The Mississippi River flows along a ridge formed by its own deposits (known as a levee), from which the lands decline toward a river beyond at an average fall of six feet per mile (3 m/km). The alluvial lands along other streams present similar features.

The higher and contiguous hill lands of the north and northwestern part of the state have an area of more than 25,000 square miles (65,000 km²). They consist of prairie and woodlands. The elevations above sea level range from 10 feet (3 m) at the coast and swamp lands to 50 and 60 feet (15–18 m) at the prairie and alluvial lands. In the uplands and hills, the elevations rise to Driskill Mountain, the highest point in the state at only 535 feet (163 m) above sea level.

Besides the navigable waterways already named, there are the Sabine (Sah-BEAN), forming the western boundary; and the Pearl, the eastern boundary; the Calcasieu (KAL-cah-shew), the Mermentau, the Vermilion, Bayou Teche, the Atchafalaya (a-CHAF-a-LI-a), the Boeuf (bEHf), Bayou Lafourche, the Courtableau, Bayou D'Arbonne, the Macon, the Tensas (TEN-saw), Amite River, the Tchefuncte (CHA-Funk-ta), the Tickfaw, the Natalbany, and a number of other smaller streams, constituting a natural system of navigable waterways, aggregating over 4,000 miles (6,400 km) long.

The state also has political jurisdiction over the approximately 3-mile (4.8 km)-wide portion of subsea land of the inner continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. Through a peculiarity of the political geography of the United States, this is substantially less than the 9-mile (14 km)-wide jurisdiction of nearby states Texas and Florida, which, like Louisiana, have extensive Gulf coastlines.^[14]

The southern coast of Louisiana in the United States is among the fastest disappearing areas in the world. This is largely a consequence of human mismanagement of the coast (see Wetlands of Louisiana). At one time, the land actually grew when spring floods from the Mississippi River added sediment and stimulated marsh growth; the land is now shrinking. There are multiple causes^[15] . Artificial levees now block spring flood water that would bring fresh water and sediment to marshes. Swamps have been extensively logged, leaving canals and ditches that allow saline water to move inland. Canals dug for the oil and gas industry also allow storms to move sea water inland where it damages swamps and marshes. Rising sea waters have exacerbated the problem. Some estimates conclude that the state is losing a land mass equivalent to 30 football fields every day. There are many proposals to save coastal areas by reducing human damage, including restoring natural floods from the Mississippi. Without such restoration, coastal communities will continue to disappear.^[16] And as the communities disappear, more and more people are leaving the region.^[17] Since the coastal wetlands also support an economically important coastal fishery, the loss of wetlands will also negatively affect this industry. Many other species of wildlife that depend upon wetlands will also be negatively affected, although there is little doubt that with its location at the mouth of the Mississippi River, Louisiana will continue to support vast areas of coastal wetlands and swamp forests. In spite of the acknowledged problems, coastal Louisiana still has many beautiful marshes and swamps for eco-tourists to explore,^[7] and no visit to Louisiana would be complete without a swamp tour to see wild alligators, or a boat excursion to see healthy populations of Brown Pelicans and Great Egrets.

Climate[link]