Question

Looking at the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, why did the United States buy that land and what were Jefferson’s purposes and goals in sending out an expedition?

Answer 1

The Louisiana Purchase (1803) was a land transaction between the United States and France, in which the U.S. purchased about 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million.
President Thomas Jefferson made this statement in a letter to Pierre Samuel du Pont in April 1802, in which he announced that Spain would pass back to France on the vast territory of Louisiana. When the United States moved westward, traffic on the Mississippi River and access to the port of New Orleans became vital to American trade, this transition of authority became a cause for concern.

At the conclusion of the French and Indian Wars, France had lost its North American possessions. New Orleans and Louisiana, west of Mississippi, were passed to Spain in 1762, and the next year the French territories east of Mississippi, including Canada, were passed to Britain. But Napoleon, who took power in 1799, tried to restore the influence of France on the continent.

The situation in Louisiana reached a crisis point in October 1802, when King Charles IV of Spain signed a decree handing the region to France and the Spanish agent in New Orleans, acting on the orders of the Spanish government, denied American access to port warehouses. Such moves have caused uproar in the United States

Seizing what Jefferson later called "a fugitive phenomenon," Monroe and Livingston quickly entered into negotiations and, on 30 April, concluded an agreement that exceeded their authority purchasing the state of Louisiana, including New Orleans, for $15 million. The purchase of nearly 827,000 square miles would have doubled the size of the United States.