Napoleon Bonaparte
|
Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul and chief magistrate of France between 1799 and 1804, was not a man to give up an empire lightly. He was, however, pressed on every side by all of Europe and short of cash to fund his wars. The sale of Louisiana would help ease France's strained financial situation. Napoleon also feared that the Americans might simply seize Louisiana and pay nothing. Moreover, he had cause to hesitate over the prospect of war in the Americas.
"Napoleon's surrender of his American ambitions followed partly from the horrendous losses from yellow fever of troops fighting slave rebels in Santo Domingo," Elliott West tells us. "That yellow fever had been introduced by slaves from Africa. Those slaves in turn were necessary because of the loss of Indians to contact diseases carried by Europeans. The fact that Arkansans speak English rather than French is part of a worldwide story that involves mosquitoes and microbes as much as diplomacy and armies."
Monroe and Livingston jumped on the "all or nothing" offer proposed by Bonaparte's emissary, eventually acquiring Louisiana for $15 million, a cost of less than three cents an acre. Jefferson learned of the transaction on July 3rd, 1803, and announced it to the public on the 27th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
|
"We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives. From this day the United States take their place among the powers of first rank."
Robert Livingston, 1803
|
NEXT: The Southwest Wilderness »
|
