What 1803 acquisition from France nearly doubled the size of the United States?

The Louisiana Purchase was the 1803 acquisition from France that nearly doubled the size of the United States.

The United States agreed to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 for $15 million. The treaty was signed on April 30, 1803, and the transfer was completed later that year. The territory covered about 828,000 square miles west of the Mississippi River.

President Thomas Jefferson supported the purchase, even though the Constitution did not explicitly describe a presidential power to acquire territory. The deal gave the United States control of the port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River’s lower course, both vital to western farmers and trade.

The purchase did not immediately create all the present-day states within its boundaries. Instead, the territory was surveyed, governed, and gradually organized. Its lands eventually contributed to all or parts of fifteen current states and two Canadian provinces.