What area did the United States acquire through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?

The United States acquired the Louisiana Territory through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

The agreement transferred approximately 828,000 square miles of land from France to the United States. President Thomas Jefferson’s administration negotiated the purchase with France, which was then led by Napoleon Bonaparte. The United States paid 60 million francs and assumed claims by American citizens against France worth another 18 million dollars.

The treaty was signed in Paris on April 30, 1803, and the United States took possession later that year. The purchase more than doubled the country’s area and secured control of the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans, both vital to western farmers and national commerce.

The transaction raised constitutional questions because the Constitution did not explicitly describe a power to acquire foreign territory. Jefferson supported the purchase despite those concerns. Much of the acquired land was mapped and studied by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which began in 1804.