The Louisiana Purchase

Napoleon became master of France on November 9, 1799 and fell heir to many policies inherited from the Old Regime, for Frenchmen had never ceased to hope for a revival of their colonial empire. Talleyrand was to be the connecting link between the Old and the New. Recovery of Louisiana was an integral part of plans for French Commercial Development.

A victorious Napoleon secured a retrocession of Louisiana from Spain's Carlos IV, by the preliminary treaty of San Ildefonso on October 1, 1800. On January 29, 1802, Napoleon's conquest of Santo Domingo as a prelude to the occupation of Louisiana ran into heavy weather - his second army against Touissant L'Ouverture lost 24,000 men - war clouds from England loomed on France's horizons - colonialism became a source of endless worry and Napoleon gave up his dreams of empire abroad.

These events were not lost on President Jefferson. His first diplomatic effort was to send Robert Livingston to France to try to gain certain rights in New Orleans and the Floridas in case Napoleon did win Louisiana from Spain.

The speed of events between Spain, France, and England forced Jefferson to appoint James Monroe as special Minister-Envoy to France and Spain, acting with Livingston in Paris and Charles Pinckney in Spain.

Napoleon recognized the potential expense of defending Mississippi areas and Louisiana from an expanding United States -without Santo Domingo, Lou

. . .
onial possessions always uncertain . . . our land forces are able to fight and will fight, especially at this time, with advantage against all those in Europe . . . in fact the English navy is and will remain preponderant for a long time . . . we will never equal it. . . . Napoleon's motives were also greatly affected by advice from his Minister for Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand: [I]t is undoubtedly necessary that France be a colonial power, but what constitutes that power is not having distant territories, more or less extensive, but being able to people them, to cultivate them, and to govern them. A later meeting between Napoleon and Marbois, on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1803, further advances the basis of Napoleon's motives. I think of ceding it to the United States. . . . I already consider the colony as completely lost and it seems to me that in the hands of that growing power it will be more useful to the policy and even to the commerce of France than if I should try to keep it. Marbois' diaries are considered the most authoritative French analysis of the cession. After the treaty was concluded, Letters of Talleyrand provide n overall summary of Napoleon
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Approximate Word count = 3295
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)

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