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The Louisiana Purchase encompassed 530,000,000 acres of territory in North America that the United States purchased from France in 1803 for $15 million. As the United States spread across the Appalachians, the Mississippi River became an increasingly important conduit for the produce of America’s West (which at that time referred to the land between the Appalachians and the Mississippi). Since 1762, Spain had owned the territory of Louisiana, which included 828,000 square miles. The territory made up all or part of fifteen modern U.S. states between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.
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 Toussaint 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.
France wanted to end Louvertre's rule and reinstate slavery. Napoleon sent a massive 30,000 troops French expeditionary force commanded by his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to St. Domingue to accomplish this goal. The size of the French force 's size suggests that the army was not just sent to take control of St. Domingue, but Napoleon clearly wanted the army to occupy the Lousiana Louisiana Purchase for France. This army put France directly at odds with the United States's ambitions.
====France's ambitions fall apart====
