Louisiana Purchase was the largest land area ever purchased by the United States from a foreign country. The purchase basically doubled the size of the U.S. And there is no doubt that by paying about 3 cents or slightly less an acre, it was the most economical land purchase in American history. This paper reviews that purchase and the ramifications of it.

Prior to delving into exactly how the purchase from France came about, some facts that basically lay out the advantages and gains of the purchase are worthy of mentioning. The purchase was of 828,000 square miles that had been held by France up until 1803. The purchase encompassed what today includes 15 states in the United States and 2 Canadian provinces. Those states include (all of) Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and portions of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Louisiana....
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