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France Secretly Cedes Louisiana to Spain
French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle first claimed the Louisiana Territory which he named for King Louis XIV, during a 1682 canoe expedition down the Mississippi River. France ceded the Louisiana Territory to Spain; Following the last battle of the French and Indian War, France secretly cedes New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain in the Treaty of Fountainebleau to minimize British holdings in North America following France’s loss in the French and Indian War. -
Treaty of Paris is ratified following France's loss in the French and Indian War
France cedes territories east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans to Britain in the Treaty of Paris to end the French and Indian War. -
Revolutionary War is Over, Treaty of Paris Signed
Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War gives newly independent United States free access to the Mississippi! -
Spain Closes Mississippi
Spain closes lower Mississippi and New Orleans to foreigners in order to create a buffer zone between Spanish and U.S. -- to try and prevent westward expansion. -
French Revolution Begins!
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219315/French-RevolutionAt a time when the problem of maintaining food supplies had reached its climax in France infuriated the towns and the provinces, rumours of an “aristocratic conspiracy” by the king and the privileged to overthrow the Third Estate led to the Great Fear of July 1789. Troops gathered around Paris and provoked insurrection in the capital. On July 14, 1789, the Parisian crowd seized the Bastille, a symbol of aristocracy. The revolution had begun. -
Spain reopens the Mississippi and New Orleans to Americans
Pinckney’s Treaty between Spain and US fixed the southern boundary of the United States at 31° N latitude and established commercial arrangements for the US. US citizens were accorded free navigation of the Mississippi River through Spanish territory. The treaty granted Americans the privilege of temporary storage of goods at New Orleans. Each side agreed to restrain Indian within its borders from attacks on the other, and there were provisions respecting freedom of the seas/ -
Napoleon seizes power in France
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup d'état and installed himself as First Consul of France, five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor, following a plebiscite in his favour. In the first decade of the 19th century, the French Empire under Napoleon engaged in a series of conflicts—the Napoleonic Wars—that involved every major European power. -
Spain cedes Louisiana Back to France
Treaty of San Ildefonso: Spain returned Louisiana to France in exchange for a piece of Italy (Etruria). "Let the Court of Madrid cede these districts to France," Talleyrand (France Diplomat) had written, "and from that moment the power of America is bounded by the limit which it may suit the interests and and the tranquillity of France and Spain to assign here. The French Republic... will be the wall of brass forever impenetrable to the combined efforts of England and America." -
Livingston heads to Paris for Talks
President Jefferson appoints Robert Livingston as US Foreign Minister to and sends him to Paris, France to begin negotiating the purchase of the Louisiana Territory -
Jefferson sends prediction letter to French Diplomat Pierre Samuel de Pont
"This little event, of France's possessing herself of Louisiana, is the embryo of a tornado which will burst on the countries on both sides of the Atlantic and involve in it's effects their highest destinies." Jefferson wrote this letter amid reports that Spain was thinking about retroceding to France the vast territory of Louisiana. As the US had expanded westward, navigation of the Mississippi and access to the NO port was increasingly important to US economic commercial interstests. -
Spain cedes Louisiana to France.
Spain cedes Louisiana to France. France closes New Orleans to American shipping. French army sent to re-establish control in Saint Domingue, where a slave revolt had taken place, is decimated. -
Jefferson's secret message to the House
Thomas Jefferson sends a confidential message to the House of Representatives in response to the cessation of New Orleans to France, which he calls "a violation, on the part of Spain, of the twenty-second article of the treaty of friendship, limits, and navigation, between the United States and the King of Spain." Jefferson was angry that the port was ceded secretly to France, and was attempt to deal with the strain that put on US commerce; the House commences debate on the issue -
Monroe heads to Paris to aid Livingston
Thomas Jefferson sends James Monroe to help Livingston out in negotiating for the purchase in France. James Monroe, later becomes the 5th President of the US (1817–1825), the the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, the third to die on Independence Day, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation. -
Jefferson asks the Senate to confirm diplomatic travel for Livingston and Monroe
The Senate receives a message from Thomas Jefferson nominating "Robert Livingston to be Minister Plenipotentiary, and James Monroe to be Minister Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, to enter into a treaty or convention with the First Consul of France, for the purpose of enlarging, and more effectually securing, our rights and interests in the river Mississippi, and in the territories eastward thereof." -
Jefferson asks for $ for Expedition (before treaty is ratified)
Thomas Jefferson sends a secret letter to Congress asking for "the appropriation of two thousand five hundred dollars, for the purpose of extending the external commerce of the United States." This money will be used to fund the Lewis and Clark Expedition. -
Napoleon orders forces to sail to New Orleans, Contemplates Sale
Napoleon orders forces to sail to New Orleans. A month later, he cancels the expedition. He realizes, it's impracticable to defend the Louisiana Territory from potential invaders-Britain or US might march in and simply take over! Britain at the time was France's enemy (better the US!) Plus, it's better to sell to the US and get something for it while still an option-defending it would be too expensive. Additionally, he needed money to fund his wars of conquest and aggression in Europe. -
Map is Drawn of Louisiana Territory
In March 1803, War Department cartographer Nicholas King compiled a map of North America west of the Mississippi in order to summarize all available topographic information about the region. It is believed that Lewis and Clark carried this map on their journey at least as far as the Mandan-Hidatsa villages on the Missouri River, where Lewis annotated in brown ink additional information obtained from fur traders. -
France Willing to Sell
Foreign Minister Talleyrand tells Livingston that France is willing to sell all of Louisiana. Among the reasons: Selling the Louisiana Territory to US would increase the power of that country in the long run,which would make them a rival for Britain - Napoleon's most hated enemy - later. -
Monroe arrives in Paris
Monroe arrives in Paris and joins Livingston in negotiations with Finance Minister Barbé-Marbois. There was no love lost between Monroe and Livingston--Monroe annoyed Livingston, and Livingston was not trusted by Monroe. Monroe believed Livingston to be apt to grasp at the whole credit of the Louisiana treaty. -
Deal is Reached
Monroe, Livingston, and Barbé-Marbois agree on terms of sale: $15 million for approximately. 827,000 square miles of territory. By the time of the sale, Napoleon was eager for cash--he needed money to continue to fund his wars of conquest and aggression in Europe. One of the most important terms of the Louisiana Purchase was that the US had to pay the whole price UP FRONT in gold. -
'I stretched the Constitution until it Cracked.'
When Jefferson signed the treaty to purchase Louisiana, he said that he "had stretched the Constitution until it cracked." Jefferson had long been an advocate of a limited government, a strict constructionist and a states' rights advocate. That is what a Democratic Republican stood for. BUT the "force of circumstances", he would rely on, compelled him to the deal, even in spite of his principles. -
Britain Declares War Against France
As expected, Britain declared war on France in 1803. They remain at war for over a decade, durig which Napoleon and British leaders concentrated on European affairs. The conflict spilled over into the Atlantic. From 1803 to 1806, the United States succeeded in remaining neutral, but suffered from impressment (British seizure of U.S. citizens into British navy) Jefferson sends Pinkney and Monroe to negotiate a treaty with Britain to halt the impressment of American sailors, to no avail. -
Louisiana Purchase is announced in US
Purchase is officially announced in United States. -
Ratification of Treaty
U.S. Senate formally ratifies purchase treaty by 2/3 majority vote -
Spain formally transfers Louisiana to France
Spain initially insisted that Louisiana comprised no more than the western bank of the Mississippi River and the cities of New Orleans and St. Louis. The US 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. (The dispute was ultimately resolved by the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819, with the United States gaining most of what it had claimed.) -
France formally transfers Louisiana to US
France turned New Orleans over on December 20, 1803 at The Cabildo (the home of the Spanish municipal gov't in New Orleans). 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. The remainder of the territory's boundaries was in dispute. -
United States takes formal possession of Louisiana
United States takes formal possession of Louisiana, President Jefferson sends Lewis and Clark out out on their Expedition, AKA "Corps of Discovery Expedition" to cross the western portion of the United States, departing from St. Louis on the Mississippi River making their way westward through the continental divide to the Pacific coast -
Period: to
Lewis and Clark Expedition
When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed from St. Louis in May 1804, the exact boundaries of the newly acquired territory had yet to be hashed out. The expedition documented natural resources and plants that had been previously unknown to Euro-Americans. They were the first Americans to cross the continental divide, to see Yellowstone, to enter Montana and produce an official description of these different regions. -
Lewis writes a letter to President Jefferson giving him details of their Expedition
Meriwether Lewis's letter to Jefferson states, "in obedience to your orders we have penitrated the Continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean, and sufficiently explored the interior of the country..." Mission was 2-fold: 1) find a practical route across the Western half of the continent, establishing an American presence in this territory securing it before other European powers tried to secure route; and 2) to study the area's plants, animal life, geography, and other natural resources
