Louisiana Purchase
On April 30, 1803 the nation of France sold 828,000 square miles (2,144,510 square km) of land west of the Mississippi River to the young United States of America in a treaty commonly known as the Louisiana Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson, in one of his greatest achievements, more than doubled the size of the United States at a time when the young nation's population growth was beginning to quicken.
Background
Fact 4: France had just re-taken control of the Louisiana Territory.
Fact 5: The United States nearly went to war over Louisiana.
Fact 6: The United States never asked for all of Louisiana.
The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of less than three cents an acre was among Jefferson’s most notable achievements as president.
American expansion westward into the new lands began immediately, and in 1804 a territorial government was established.
On April 30, 1812, exactly nine years after the Louisiana Purchase agreement was made, the first state to be carved from the territory–Louisiana–was admitted into the Union as the 18th U.S. state.
Fact 1:
Fact 2:
Fact 3:
