Louisiana Purchase by Peter Roop

Author:Peter Roop
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504010146
Publisher: Open Road Media

6

FRANCE GETS KICKED OUT AND BRITAIN GETS THE BOOT

While the Spanish and French were claiming land, the British were busy too. They had landed on the Atlantic coast and decided to stay. They built colonies: Roanoke (1584; it mysteriously disappeared), Jamestown (1607), Plymouth (1620), and many more. Like beads on a necklace, the British strung their colonies along the Atlantic coast. They found what they wanted. No need to go wandering around in the wilderness claiming everything in sight.

Besides, the looming bulk of the Appalachian Mountains to the west provided the British colonists with a natural border. The British prospered between the mountains and the ocean. Before long, however, there seemed to be too many people in the thirteen colonies.

All of that wilderness west of the mountains tempted British settlers. They were eager to carve new farms into this huge western wilderness.

The French and the Native Americans disagreed. They didn’t want British pioneers settling on their lands.

Tensions rose between the British and Spanish on one side, and the British, French, and Indians on the other. In 1754 the French and Indian War exploded, sparked by an unknown young Virginian named George Washington.

When the bullets stopped flying, the French and Indians had lost. In 1763 France was forced to give Canada and the Ohio valley to the British. France also had to give Louisiana to the Spanish. This is why Spain could claim Louisiana in 1800, and Napoléon had to plot to get it back.

The Native Americans, however, lost the most as British settlers swarmed into their lands.

The victorious British were upset. The war had cost too much. King George III and Parliament decided to make the thirteen American colonies pay for the war.

The independent-minded colonists said no, the British couldn’t tax them. Only Americans could tax Americans.

King George III and Parliament disagreed. We will tax your paper, your books, your ink. Why, we will even tax your tea! they told the colonists.

This displeased the colonists so much (along with other British actions) that on July 4, 1776, the colonies declared their independence. They would be the thirteen United States. The eight bloody years of the Revolutionary War that followed finally convinced the British they were wrong and that the colonies should have their independence.

To settle the peace, the British gave the infant United States all the British lands from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi. They kept loyal Canada for themselves.

By 1783 the British were gone from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.

The French were gone from North America.

Spain, however, held on to Louisiana and Florida. Something about the bugs, mud, rain, alligators, heat, and Native Americans still appealed to them.

When Napoléon came to power in France he wanted revenge on the British. He planned to first conquer Europe before conquering Britain.

To do this, Napoléon needed Louisiana back in the French empire. So he persuaded the Spanish to accept beautiful Tuscany for the Louisiana wilderness.

On October 1, 1800, Napoléon signed the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spain. Spain received Tuscany. France now owned Louisiana again.

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