What territory did the United States acquire in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase?

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

The agreement transferred France’s claim to a vast region west of the Mississippi River to the United States. President Thomas Jefferson’s administration paid $15 million, including assumed claims, for the purchase. The deal was finalized during the administration of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had regained French control of Louisiana from Spain.

The territory covered approximately 828,000 square miles and nearly doubled the land area claimed by the United States. It included all or part of land that later became fifteen U.S. states, including Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and portions of several western states.

The purchase did not mean the land was uninhabited or that every boundary was immediately clear. Indigenous nations lived throughout the region, and the United States later negotiated or fought over control of their lands. Boundary disputes with Spain were resolved over subsequent decades.