The Louisiana Purchase ... close the Mississippi to American use. This must have been a wrenching moment for Jefferson, who had long been a Francophile. Twelve years before, he had returned ...

Before Spain had transferred ... Purchase was one of the biggest land bargains in American history. When both countries signed the Louisiana Purchase treaty on May 2, 1803 (backdated to April ...

On April 30th, 1803, American diplomats in Paris reached an agreement with the French government to purchase the Louisiana Territory for approximately $16 million. It’s a massive but imprecisely ...

How could its legal system have relied on the Napoleonic Code when the code was written in 1804, a year after the U.S. acquired its territory in the Louisiana Purchase? The answer is simply that ...

Now the Alaska deal is seen as a masterstroke and the Louisiana purchase the greatest achievement of one of America’s greatest presidents. In hindsight, both look extraordinarily good value.