The Louisiana Purchase

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Discuss the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase. How important were Lewis and Clark?
In 1718 New Orleans was founded by the French. At the end of the French and Indian War, France lost its lands east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. In another treaty, France agreed and gave New Orleans Louisiana and the French lands west of the Mississippi to Spain.
In the late 1700s, when Napoleon became the first emperor of France, his aspiration was to build a colonial empire in North America. In 1800, Napoleon persuaded the Spanish to sign the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso and transfer Louisiana back to France. When President Thomas Jefferson learned of the secret agreement, he became very worried. Jefferson was also afraid that when the French controlled