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→Napoleon threatened to expand the French Empire North America
The Pinckney treaty of 1795 had resolved friction between Spain and the United States over the right to navigate the Mississippi and the right for Americans to transfer their goods to ocean-going vessels at New Orleans. With the Pinckney treaty in place and the weak Spanish empire in control of Louisiana, American statesmen felt comfortable that the United States’ westward expansion would not be restricted in the future.
This situation was threatened by Napoleon Bonaparte’s plans to revive the French empire in the New World. He planned to recapture the valuable sugar colony of St. Domingue from a slave rebellionToussaint Louverture, and then use Louisiana as the granary for his empire. Louverture not only led the original revolt but had become the governor of Saint Domingue and had declared self-rule in 1801. France acquired Louisiana from Spain in 1800 and took possession in 1802, sending . France wanted to end Louvertre's rule and reinstate slavery. Napoleon sent a massive 30,000 troops French expeditionary force commanded by Napoleon's brother in law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to St. Domingue and preparing to send another to New Orleansaccomplish this goal. The size of the French force (30,000 troops) suggests that the army was not just in sent to take control of St. Domingue to end a slave revolt, but Napoleon clearly wanted the army to occupy the Lousiana Purchase for France. This army put France directly at odds with the United States's ambitions.
====France's ambitions fall apart====
