When looking at why or how things happened in history, it is important to not look at just the one event that occurred; but to look at other things that were also going on that could have influenced an event. The Louisiana Purchase is a prime example of this. The Louisiana Purchase took place in 1803. There are two specific reasons for Napoleon Bonaparte’s motivation to sell such a huge land mass. The Americans were eager to seal the deal for a different two main reasons.
During this time France had recently lost a pivotal battle in present day Haiti. The outcome of this battle made France not faithful in having colonies. “He had lost Santo Domingo...he could not hope, in his lifetime to out build the English at sea. Moreover, he was committed to an invasion of England” (Chidsey). The second reason that was the motivation for Napoleon was his lack of money for supplies and goods to go to war with Britain. He was more concerned with making sure he had enough money for the war versus what he was going to make with having the colonies in America.
The Americans that were primarily dealing with this were President Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, along with some others. When James Madison went to France to talk about the treaty and was told that France wanted to sell the entire land mass, he agreed to do so very quickly. Not all American’s wanted to sign and ratify the treaty as soon as possible however, it was. The reason the Jeffersonians; those in favor of the