In 1803, one of the most important real estate transactions in world history took place.

France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, sold approximately 530 million acres of territory in the middle of North America to the newly founded United States.

The reason for France's selling and the United States buying were varied, and they attracted considerable controversy on both sides of the

Atlantic. But in the end, some deals are just too good to pass up. Learn more about the Louisiana

purchase, the reasons behind it, and how it shaped history on this episode of Everything Everywhere

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The Louisiana purchase was the single largest territorial acquisition in the history of the United States and one of the largest in world history.

The purchase doubled the size of the young country with the stroke of a pen and several

million dollars.

All you have to do is look at a map and you can see just how significant the event was in shaping

both the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere.

To understand why France sold the Louisiana Territory and why the United States purchased

it, we have to go way

back to early European claims in North America. Spain was the first European power to set foot in

the Americas and the first to make land claims in the new world. By the Treaty of Tortoise

...