The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was an 1803 land deal in which the United States acquired vast French territory west of the Mississippi River, roughly doubling the young nation's size.
Negotiated almost by accident when American diplomats sent merely to purchase a port city instead found themselves offered an entire continental territory, this single transaction transformed the geographic scale of the young United States overnight.
An Unexpected Opportunity
American diplomats were originally sent to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans alone, but French leader Napoleon Bonaparte, needing funds and facing renewed war with Britain, unexpectedly offered the entire Louisiana territory.
Doubling the Nation's Size
The 1803 purchase, negotiated under President Thomas Jefferson, roughly doubled the size of the United States for a price of approximately $15 million, an extraordinary bargain even by the standards of the time.
Opening the American West
The purchase opened vast new territory for American westward expansion, later explored in detail by the Lewis and Clark expedition commissioned shortly after the deal was finalized.
A Foundational Territorial Expansion
The Louisiana Purchase remains one of the most significant single territorial acquisitions in American history, eventually forming all or part of 15 modern U.S. states.
