Why did the french sell Louisiana?

Answer 1

Napoleon needed the money to finance his European wars.

Answer 2

It's not so much that France sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States. Instead, France sold their claims over the territory, which actually was a violation of the treaty that returned the territory to France from Spain in 1800. The real owners were the First Nations tribes that inhabited the land. However, such is life.

In addition to the need for finances with ongoing conflicts in Europe, France was abandoning their hopes for a second empire in the Americas. After the successful revolution that granted Haiti its independence, Napoleon no longer felt that it was worth the effort.

Answer 3

K nown in the US as the Louisiana Purchase, tripled the size of America and opened the doors for Manifest Destiny to the Pacific Coast. Napolean was forced to sell the Louisiana territory because of the high cost of his European Wars, his defeat and loss of Haiti and he knew that if the US government chose to attack and seize the territory he waouldnot be able to defend it and defeat the American troops. Also, he was trying to keep the peace with the US, after some diplomatic misteps made by the French in trying to work out a solution to the XYZ affair and incidents occuring in Norht Africa.

Answer 4

In 1800, France's Napoleon Bonaparte acquired Louisiana from Spain in the Treaty of San Ildefonso, an arrangement kept secret for some two years.

Then in 1803, Bonaparte sold the territory to the United States, which (see Louisiana Purchase) divided it into two territories: the Orleans Territory (which became the state of Louisiana in 1812) and the District of Louisiana (which consisted of all the land not included in Orleans Territory). The Florida Parishes were annexed from the short-lived and strategically important West Florida Republic by proclamation of President James Madison in 1810.

The western boundary of Louisiana with Spanish Texas remained in dispute until the Adams-Onís Treaty in 1819, with the Sabine Free State serving as a neutral buffer zone as well as a haven for criminals. Also called "No Man's Land," this part of central and southwestern Louisiana was settled in part by a mixed-race people known as Redbones, whose origins are the subject of ongoing debate.

Louisiana was a slave state. It also had one of the largest free black populations in the United States.(see slavery) In the American Civil War, Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. New Orleans was captured by Federal troops on April 25, 1862. Because a large part of the population had Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the Federal government took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana under federal control as a state within the Union, with its own elected representatives to the U.S. Congress.

Answer 5

Napoleon had suffered some costly military defeats and realized he could not build a French New World empire and defend it from the British.

He let 827,987 square miles go for three cents an acre. Cheap even by 1803 standards!

Answer 6

~Napolean wanted Johnny Horton to be able to sing "The Battle of New Orleans", which Johnny could not have written had Louisianna remained in French hands, as the battle would not have been fought. He was also worried that Aaron Burr might try to invade again. Might just as well make a few bucks since it was pretty much lost ground already.

Answer 7

France needed the money for the war against the British.

Answer 8

Napoleon needed the money for his war in Europe.

Answer 9

Because Napoleon needed the money.

Answer 10

They needed the money to fund Napoleon's war.