Napoleon Bonaparte sold the land because he needed money for the Great French War. This could weaken Britain's war effort against France and give Napoleon victory. The latter knew America well, having spent some years in Philadelphia in the late 1700s as French ambassador to the United States, where he got to know Washington, Jefferson, Livingston and Monroe. In 1800, Napoleon, the First Consul of the French Republic, regained ownership of Louisiana as part of a broader effort to re-establish a French colonial empire in North America. To Napoleon's line of thinking, if the United States took control of Louisiana, then it would deny Britain the opportunity of conquering it. Jefferson considered a constitutional amendment to justify the purchase; however, his cabinet convinced him otherwise. The Louisiana Purchase was the start of the United States' incredible expansion from a group of Eastern Seaboard states on the North American continent. Francis Baring's son Alexander and Pierre Labouchre from Hopes arrived in Paris in April 1803 to assist with the negotiations. In 1718, the French established New Orleans, and scant groups of colonists moved in. With Congress and a vociferous press calling for action, Jefferson faced the nations most serious crisis since the American Revolution. The asking price was $125 million. He stood up and then splashed back down into the water so heavily that his brothers got soaked. Peace is our passion, he declared, and expressed the concern that hotheaded members of the opposition Federalist Party might force us into war. He had already instructed Livingston in early 1802 to approach Napolons foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, to try to prevent the cession of the territory to France, if this had not already occurred, or, if the deal was done, to try to purchase New Orleans. Federalists tried to block the purchase by claiming the land belonged to Spain and not France. So while a slave rebellion helped drive the Louisiana Purchase, the new territory was destined to become a place of suffering and exploitation for the thousands of slaves forced to work there. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. [6] The territory nominally remained under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the formal cession of the territory to the United States on December 20, 1803.[7]. Without the profits from Saint-Domingue, it did not make sense to try to defend the sprawling Louisiana Territory, and Napoleon was worried about the British. What if France did not sell Louisiana? Would that make the United States too powerful? COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The Republican secretaries of state in Ohio, West Virginia and Missouri have promoted their states' elections as fair and secure. Why Did France Sell Louisiana? - CLJ The two powers were at peace in early 1803, having signed the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, which, as explained by Britannica, ended hostilities between the two nations. Charles A. Cerami, author of Jeffersons Great Gamble, agrees. We also show that our political and cultural relationship with France was extraordinarily rich at the time, a spirited interchange that altered the shape of the modern world.. Though there were 10 black slaves for every white person in Haiti, slaves occupied the bottom rung of society and were treated like expendable commodities. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the "preemptive" right to obtain "Indian" lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.[1][2]. Louisiana Purchase - Definition, Facts & Importance