The Louisiana Purchase

Historically High

Back in good ol 1803 a little transaction occurred that saw the newly christened United States of America doubled in size, adding a chunk of land stretching from the west bank of the Mississippi River and covering 15 current states in the USA. Effectively this meant the U.S. territory stretched about 2/3 across the continent. Now land transfers have happened throughout ancient and modern history, however this one is special. This one is universally known as the greatest deal in human history, with the U.S paying France only $15 million dollars for a 1/3 of our nation. Now I know what you're thinking, weren't we under British control until that whole Declaration of Independence/American Revolution thing? Well yeah we were, but the area right in our backyard was under the "ownership" of the French. This extremely pivotal point in our history only happened due to the alignment of so many events it's nearly a miracle this thing was pulled off. Tune in now to find out how.