For Land: Others shed blood, the USA shed a few dollars   #documentary #history #usa
Channel: All Battle Chronicles
Date: 2024-03-11

For Land: Others shed blood, the USA shed coins
In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, leader of the French First Republic, urgently needed money to finance his European wars. France had a territory in Central North America, next to the USA. In the eyes of any European statesman, the central lands of America were a wilderness, not worth as much as the developed lands of Europe. This Louisiana territory was gained from Spain by exchanging it with the city of Tuscany just 3 years ago which was only 23.000 square kilometers (8900 square miles)

Thus, the transaction called the 'Louisiana Purchase' took place. France received $15,000,000 for the land sold. In today’s geographic terms, the equivalent is roughly the area of Saudi Arabia which is 93 times bigger than Tuscany. In fact, France only had the ownership of the Louisiana territory, all the surrounding much bigger territories belonging to Native Americans just came with the price tag. No matter how you cut it, that's a pretty sweet deal!

#history #napoleon #documentary