The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition

The Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition — page 5
CHAPTER ONE AN ASTOUNDING AGREEMENT Facing certain defeat at the hands of the British in the Seven Years War France secretly ceded its North American lands west of the Mississippi River the Louisiana Territory to Spain in 1762 Months later in the treaty that ended the war France transferred virtually all its remaining land in North America to Great Britain This arrangement however proved temporary French power recovered under the military leadership leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte On October 1 1800 Napoleon persuaded King Charles IV of Spain to agree to cede Louisiana back to France under the Treaty of San Ildefonso The treaty would reestablish French control of the commercially significant port of New Orleans as well as the mouth of the Mississippi River Reports of this deal were received by the US government government with great concern about its implications for the future of American commerce These were the circumstances circumstances in which the Louisiana Purchase took shape 8