Spanish territory now bounded the United States on the south and the west. The Spaniards were not good neighbors, because it was very hard to make them come to an agreement, and next to impossible to make them keep an agreement when it was made. But this did not matter very much, because Spain was a weak power and was growing weaker every year. Sooner or later the United States would gain its point. Suddenly, however, it was announced that France had got back Louisiana. And almost at the same moment the Spanish governor of Louisiana said that Americans could no longer deposit their goods at New Orleans (p. 170). At once there was a great outcry in the West. Jefferson determined to buy from France New Orleans and the land eastward from the mouth of the Mississippi.

When Napoleon got Louisiana from Spain, he had an idea of again founding a great French colony in America. At the moment France and Great Britain were at peace. But it soon looked as if war would begin again. Napoleon knew that the British would at once seize Louisiana and he could not keep it anyway. So one day, when the Americans and the French were talking about the purchase of New Orleans, the French minister suddenly asked if the United States would not like to buy the whole of Louisiana. Monroe and Livingston, the American ministers, had no authority to buy Louisiana. But the purchase of the whole colony would be a great benefit to the United States. So they quickly agreed to pay fifteen million dollars for the whole of Louisiana.