President Jefferson attempted to purchase the Isle of Orleans from France.
In 1803, when the United States purchased Louisiana from France, the great expanse of this new American territory was a blank -- not only on the map b... The Frontiersmen by Allan W. Eckert. So, under pressure, Spain returned Louisiana to France. Federalists in the United States were alarmed that France now owned Louisiana. They wanted to use force against France. But Jefferson (a Democratic-Repulican) sent Robert R. Livingston, the U.S. minister to France to attempt to buy New Orleans. In 1801, President Thomas Jefferson received word that Louisiana was about to be returned to French control. This was a matter of concern to the president. Spain was a declining power and offered no threat to the United States. Such was not the case with France under Napoleon. James Monroe was dispatched to Paris to supplement the American mission led by Robert Livingston. Monroe was instructed to try to purchase New Orleans and Florida. The United States gained two new pieces of territory between 1815 and 1820. In 1818, a treaty with Britain gave the country the Red River Basin, north of the Louisiana Territory. Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819. After the war Louisiana's control of the great inland trade route, the Mississippi, led to heated controversy with the Americans. In the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800), Napoleon I forced the retrocession of the territory to France. Revelation of this treaty caused profound concern in the United States. President Jefferson attempted to purchase the Isle of Orleans from France. To the surprise of the American representatives in France, Napoleon decided to sell all of Louisiana to the United States (see Louisiana Purchase). The United States took possession in 1803, and in 1804 the territory was divided into two parts. The United States in 1803-04, courtesy Wikipedia. The French territory called Louisiana, extending from New Orleans up the Missouri River to modern-day Montana, was intended as a granary for this empire and produced flour, salt, lumber, and food for the sugar islands.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h476.html http://sheg.stanford.edu/upload/Lessons/Unit%204_Expansion%20and%20Slavery/Louisiana%20Purchase%20Lesson%20Plan.pdf http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h476.html http://www.theusaonline.com/history/new-nation.htm http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/us/louisiana-history.html http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-louisianapurchase.html
why did the united states express concern after spain returned louisiana to france