The Louisiana Purchase and Napoleon Bonaparte
The Reasons Why France Sold the Territory to the United States
Dec 28, 2008
As early as 1802, diplomatic circles in Europe and the United States were talking about Spain’s cession of Louisiana to France. Although the terms of the Treaty of San Ildefonso were kept secret, there was enough concern, particularly in the Thomas Jefferson administration, that such a transfer would not bode well for American commercial interests that relied on New Orleans as a port of deposit. The Louisiana Purchase was a brilliant diplomatic coup, but it didn’t happen without intrigue and dogged persistence.
Why Napoleon Bonaparte Decided to Sell Louisiana
By the time Napoleon, through his Finance Minister Marbois, agreed to a treaty selling Louisiana to the Americans, his debacle in Santo Domingo in the Caribbean still continued. Begun under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Santo Domingo revolt had cost thousands of French lives, largely due to yellow fever. Napoleon’s strategy of subduing the rebels and transferring troops to New Orleans to secure Louisiana evaporated in the face of yellow fever and fierce resistance by local militants on Santo Domingo. His first general dead, the second commander would surrender to the British.
Significantly, Spain’s King Carlos IV had withheld Florida from the San Ildefonso Treaty. Napoleon, knowing that renewed conflict with Great Britain was a certainty after both sides violated the 1801 Treaty of Amiens, believed that without Florida, France could not defensively hold an empire in the Americas. As Napoleon said to his ministers, “They [Americans] ask for one town of Louisiana; but I consider the whole colony lost.”
As war preparations began on both sides of the English Channel, Napoleon needed money. American envoy Robert Livingston and special Ambassador James Monroe were authorized to offer $2 million for the port of New Orleans. The port had already been closed to Americans on orders from the Spanish king in violation of the 1795 Pinckney Treaty on the basis of a loophole. Napoleon offered to sell the entire territory for fifty million francs, although ensuing negotiations saw higher and lower figures.
Additionally, the mood of Napoleon may have played a role in his decision to sell, a stark reversal for a man who had envisioned the rebirth of New France in the Americas. Turning his attention to Britain and focusing on that nation’s defeat, New World ambitions faded at least into the distant future. The elimination of Britain might, in fact, offer a better opportunity to regain the lost Empire across the Atlantic. Napoleon never took the United States seriously.
Warnings from the French Charge d’Affairs in Washington, DC that the Americans were raising militia troops to take New Orleans by force probably did not play a decisive role in Napoleon’s decision. Napoleon knew that American defenses were weak: the Jefferson administration had emasculated the army and navy through retirements and severe cuts to defense spending. And most Europeans scoffed at the new American nation, despite the fact that its credit rating was higher than many European nations.
Added to the many reasons Napoleon abruptly changed his mind regarding the territorial sale might also be the near vehement opposition of his brothers and his Foreign Minister, Talleyrand. The opposition went so far as to question Napoleon’s judgment. Given the First Consul’s temperament, this opposition may have helped to push through the deal with the Americans.
Louisiana Territory Becomes a Part of the United States
Although Robert Livingston had spent many months paving the way to the settlement, James Monroe would receive the public credit for the sale. Settling on $20 million ($5 million to address American claims pertinent to the recent Quasi-Naval War), the American envoys signed the treaty, hopeful that President Jefferson and the American Congress would ratify their bold action.
Not without political recriminations, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty was ratified by the Senate and the Congress voted funds to pay for the deal. Within two weeks of the treaty signing in Paris, war broke out between France and Britain.
Sources:
Thomas Fleming, The Louisiana Purchase (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002)
Jon Kukla, A Wilderness so Immense: the Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America (New York: Anchor, 2004)
Page Smith, The Shaping of America: A People’s History of the Young Republic Vol. 3 (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1980)
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