The Territory of Louisiana
The Louisiana Territory stretched across the Mississippi Valley, from the Rockies in the west, to Canada in the north and to the Gulf of Mexico in the south. It was reckoned to extend to one million square miles (2.59 million square km) although recent estimates suggest 825,000 square miles (2.137 million square km).
The Territory had been claimed for France in 1682 and ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800 it was secretly ceded back to France but this only became publicly known in 1802. It prompted President Thomas Jefferson to open negotiations to purchase New Orleans for US$2 million in order to secure for the USA a gateway to the Gulf of Mexico. But this was overtaken by events.
In the early months of 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte became aware that he had not the resources both to defend Louisiana and to wage war in Europe. The sale of Louisiana to the USA became inevitable. Its acquisition doubled the size of the country, and out of it 13 states – Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado and Oklahoma – were formed in whole or in greater part.