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This webquest is geared for social studies middle school students from ages 9-13. 

By a treaty signed on April 30, 1803 America purchased the Louisiana Territory from France. In 1734 France had ceded Louisiana to Spain, but by the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso the French had regained the area. Napoleon Bonaparte wanted a great French Empire in the New World, and he hoped to use the Mississippi Valley for food and trade supply for the island of Hispaniola the heart of his empire. First he had to restore the French control over Hispaniola, the Haitian slaves seized power. In 1802 a large army was sent by Napoleon, to suppress the Haitian rebellion. The French had lost thousands of soldiers, mainly to yellow fever, and Napoleon realized Hispaniola had to be deserted. Without that island he had little use for Louisiana. He faced a new war with Great Britain and could not send troops to the New World to protect his land. He needed funds to support his military ventures in Europe.

Napoleon was now in a situation where he could not send any soldiers to Louisiana and he needed money to support his military. However, in 1803 he got an offered to sell Louisiana to the United States. Then, Thomas Jefferson had already sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the purchase of land on the lower Mississippi or a guarantee of free navigation on the river. Then the French had countered and offered them the whole land for sixty million francs about fifteen million dollars. The United States purchased Louisiana for $11,250,000 and assumed claims of its own citizens against France up to $3,750,000, for a total purchase price of $15 million.

This negotiation was immediately done. Now the two million kilometers of land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains was now the United States. Napoleon also included free navigation of the Mississippi River. Now the United States is doubled the size it was before. The Constitution did not particularly authorize the federal government to obtain new territory by treaty, Jefferson concluded that the practical benefits to the nation far outweighed the possible violation of the Constitution. The Senate agreed with this decision and voted ratification on October 20, 1803. The Spanish, who had never given up physical possession of Louisiana to the French, did so in a ceremony at New Orleans on November 30, 1803. In a second ceremony, on December 20, 1803, the French turned Louisiana over to the United States.