April 30th 1803: Louisiana Purchase
On this day in 1803, the United States purchased over 800,000 square miles of territory from France, known as the Louisiana Purchase. The purchase doubled the size of the young nation, opening the West to settlement by Americans. France had long controlled the territory, and despite ceding portions to Spain in 1762, soon re-purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1801. The United States were wary of this development, fearing that Napoleon would seek to expand French control further across the North American continent. For the bargain price of $15,000,000 - averaging at less than 42 cents per acre - the government of Thomas Jefferson purchased the land from France. The agreement was made on April 30th 1803 and the treaty signed on May 2nd. In October of the same year, the United States Senate ratified the treaty, and the transfer of authority was complete by December. Nine years after the agreement, on April 30th 1812, the first state from the territory - Louisiana - was admitted to the Union as the eighteenth state. The purchase is considered one of Jefferson’s greatest achievements.
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