Jeffeson's Louisiana Purchase

The Louisiana purchase was successful for many reasons, most notably was the fact that Napolean's French empire was in a decline. For much of the 18th and 19th century France and England had been engaged in a monumental war. By 1804 Napolean had lost much of his influence in North America following the loss of his army in St. Domingue. Jefferson caught Napolean at the most opportune time to make the greatest US acquisition in its history. The Louisiana purchase allowed for Jefferson to expand his idea of creating a nation that allowed for all of its citizens to own territory that permitted every family to cultivate its own land. Jefferson's agrarian ideals set out to avoid a class structure, even though the class system was already in place as a result of John Adam's presidential term where he implemented the US central bank. The Louisiana purchase represented a stance against federalist ideals and laid the frame work for generations of ordinary planters.