Which 1803 land deal more than doubled the territory of the United States?

The Louisiana Purchase was the 1803 land deal that more than doubled the territory of the United States.

The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million. The agreement was signed on April 30, 1803, and the transfer was completed later that year. The territory stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico toward the Canadian border, although its exact boundaries were initially uncertain.

President Thomas Jefferson had wanted secure access to the port of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. Napoleon Bonaparte’s government, facing renewed war in Europe and losing its position in the Caribbean, decided to sell the entire territory rather than retain a distant North American possession.

The purchase raised constitutional questions because the Constitution did not explicitly describe a power to acquire foreign territory. It also intensified arguments over slavery, Indigenous sovereignty, and western expansion. The Louisiana Purchase is not the same as the later Alaska Purchase of 1867.