Westward Expansion and Native American Removal, 1803-49 » The Louisiana Purchase and the Transcontinental Treaty

A nation that wanted to grow

In 1800 most Americans lived close to the Atlantic coast. West of the Appalachian Mountains, farmers were moving onto new land fast. They had a problem. The easiest way to send their crops to market was down the Mississippi River to the port of New Orleans, where goods were moved onto ships. Whoever controlled New Orleans could cut off the whole West.

Key terms:

• Territory: land that belongs to the nation but is not yet a state.
• Louisiana Purchase: the deal in 1803 in which the USA bought a huge area of land from France, west of the Mississippi River.
• Right of deposit: the right of American traders to store goods at New Orleans before shipping them abroad.
• Transcontinental Treaty: the 1819 agreement with Spain, also called the Adams-Onis Treaty, under which the USA gained Florida and a border running to the Pacific Ocean.

The Louisiana Purchase, 1803

Louisiana was a vast area stretching west of the Mississippi. It had belonged to Spain, but in 1800 Spain secretly handed it back to France, then led by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1802 Spanish officials in New Orleans took away the right of deposit. American farmers and traders were furious, and President Jefferson feared a strong France in North America.

The treaty was dated 30 April 1803. The USA paid $15 million, and the Senate approved the treaty in October. The land was about 828,000 square miles, which roughly doubled the size of the USA. Jefferson had set out to buy a port and ended up with an area as big as the whole country.

Why was it significant?

• Land and farming: there was room for generations of new farms. The USA now controlled the whole Mississippi, so western farmers could trade freely.
• Government policy: Jefferson believed in a small government that used only the powers written in the Constitution, and it says nothing about buying land. He went ahead anyway, because the chance was too good. Most people supported him.
• Money: the USA was a young country with little spare cash, so it paid for the land by borrowing.
• Native Americans: many Native American nations already lived in Louisiana. France had only claimed the land, so the USA bought France's claim, not the peoples' homes. Settlers would soon press on them.
• Slavery: the new lands raised the question of whether slavery would spread west. That story comes in the lesson on the Missouri Compromise.

Opposition from Spain and Britain

Expansion did not go unchallenged. Spain still owned Florida and the lands to the south-west, and it feared the American farmers moving towards its borders. It also took away the right of deposit at New Orleans in 1802, as you have seen. Spain was weak, though, and had little power to stop the USA.

Britain was a stronger rival. It still ruled Canada. Britain's navy stopped American ships trading with France and took sailors off American ships, claiming they were deserters. In the north-west, Americans also blamed British traders for arming the Native American peoples who were resisting the settlers. In June 1812 Congress declared war on Britain.

The War of 1812 lasted until early 1815. Neither side won. The Treaty of Ghent, signed in December 1814, put the borders back where they had been. But British help for Native American resistance in the north-west faded, and Americans felt they had held their own against Britain. This made further expansion easier.

The Transcontinental Treaty, 1819

By 1819 Spain was struggling to control its colonies, which were rebelling across Latin America. In 1818 General Andrew Jackson had chased Seminole warriors into Spanish Florida and seized Spanish forts. Spain could not defend Florida and knew it might lose it for nothing.

So the Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams, and the Spanish minister, Luis de Onis, agreed the Transcontinental Treaty on 22 February 1819. It came into force in 1821.

• Spain gave Florida to the USA.
• The USA took on up to $5 million of claims that American citizens had against Spain.
• A border was fixed between the USA and Spanish lands, from the Gulf of Mexico across to the Pacific Ocean. The USA gave up any claim to Texas.

Its significance was huge. It was the first time that the USA's claims were drawn all the way to the Pacific. It removed Spain from the south-east and settled the border with a weak neighbour peacefully. Spain's lands then became part of Mexico, which won its independence in 1821.

Change and continuity

What changed? In twenty years the USA doubled in size, took Florida and reached the Pacific on the map. What stayed the same? Native Americans still lived on the land, slavery was still legal, and the argument over how far the national government could go continued.

Exam-style question

This is a Paper 2 Section B (b) question. You need TWO causes. Each must have precise knowledge and show how it led to the outcome. One cause alone cannot score more than half marks, which is 4 out of 8.

Explain TWO causes of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. [8 marks]

Recap

• The USA bought Louisiana from France in 1803 for $15 million, roughly doubling its size.
• The causes were the need to keep the Mississippi and New Orleans open, and Napoleon's need for money after his troubles in Saint-Domingue and with Britain.
• The Purchase gave land for farming and raised questions about the Constitution, Native Americans and slavery.
• Spain and Britain opposed American expansion. The War of 1812 ended without a winner.
• The Transcontinental Treaty (1819) gave the USA Florida and a border to the Pacific.