The United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Purchase, a major expansion in the nation’s history.
The agreement was made in 1803 during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. Jefferson had initially authorized negotiators James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to seek New Orleans and perhaps nearby territory. France instead offered the entire Louisiana territory, and the American negotiators accepted the unexpectedly broad deal.
The purchase transferred about 827,000 square miles of territory and nearly doubled the nominal size of the United States. The land stretched west of the Mississippi River toward the Rocky Mountains, although its boundaries were disputed and later clarified through diplomacy and further acquisitions.
The $15 million price covered the territory itself and included assumptions about certain claims against France. The purchase is sometimes described as a bargain only by comparing its total price with the enormous land area acquired; the agreement also created constitutional questions because the Constitution did not explicitly describe a presidential power to buy territory.