Editing Louisiana Purchase (section)

==Background==
[[File:Louisiana1804a.jpg|thumb|1804 map of "[[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]", bounded on the west by the [[Rocky Mountains]]]]

Throughout the second half of the 18th century, the French colony of Louisiana became a pawn for European political intrigue.{{sfnp|Herring|2008|p=99}} The colony was the most substantial presence of [[French colonial empire|France's overseas empire]], with other possessions consisting of a few small settlements along the Mississippi and other main rivers. France ceded the territory to Spain in 1762 in the secret [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762)|Treaty of Fontainebleau]]. Following French defeat in the [[Seven Years' War]], Spain gained control of the [[Louisiana (New Spain)|territory west of the Mississippi]], and the British received the territory to the east of the river.{{sfnp|Meinig|1995|p={{page needed|date= February 2015}}}}

Following the establishment of the United States, the Americans controlled the area east of the Mississippi and north of New Orleans. The main issue for the Americans was free transit of the Mississippi out to sea. As the lands were being gradually settled by American migrants, many Americans, including Jefferson, assumed that the territory would be acquired "piece by piece". The risk of another power taking it from a weakened Spain made a "profound reconsideration" of this policy necessary.{{sfnp|Herring|2008|p=99}} New Orleans was already important for shipping agricultural goods to and from the areas of the United States west of the [[Appalachian Mountains]]. [[Pinckney's Treaty]], signed with Spain on October 27, 1795, gave American merchants "right of deposit" in New Orleans, granting them use of the port to store goods for export. The treaty also recognized American rights to navigate the entire Mississippi, which had become vital to the growing trade of the western territories.{{sfnp|Meinig|1995|p={{page needed|date= February 2015}}}}

In 1798, Spain revoked the treaty allowing American use of New Orleans, greatly upsetting Americans. In 1801, Spanish Governor Don [[Juan Manuel de Salcedo]] took over from the [[List of colonial governors of Louisiana#Spanish period|Marquess of Casa Calvo]], and restored the American right to deposit goods. However, in 1800, Spain had ceded the Louisiana territory back to France as part of Napoleon's secret [[Third Treaty of San Ildefonso]].<ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Role of American Diplomacy in the Louisiana Purchase |last=Warren|first=Rebecca |date=1976 |type=MA thesis |id=Paper 2581 |publisher=Portland State University |doi=10.15760/etd.2578 |via=PDXScholar |url-status=live |url=http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3586&context=open_access_etds|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013173430/http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3586&context=open_access_etds |archive-date=October 13, 2017|doi-access=free }}</ref> The subsequent 1801 [[Treaty of Aranjuez (1801)|Treaty of Aranjuez]] established that Spain's cession of Louisiana was a "restoration" of the territory to France, not a retrocession.<ref name =" Chambers">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/westfloridaitsre00cham |title=West Florida and Its Relation to the Historical Cartography of the United States |first= Henry E. |last=Chambers |publisher=The Johns Hopkins Press |location=Baltimore, Maryland |date=1898 |pages=50–52 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The territory nominally remained under Spanish control, until a transfer of power to France on November 30, 1803, just three weeks before the formal cession of the territory to the United States on December 20, 1803.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase|title=Louisiana Purchase |encyclopedia=Britannica |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525200210/https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase |archive-date=May 25, 2017 |url-status=live |access-date=July 21, 2017}}</ref>