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Territories gained by the U.S. The nation before the Louisiana Purchase is shown in brown. The Louisiana Territory is shown in white with black dots. Dots are shown where another country said they owned part of the land that France sold.

The Louisiana Purchase was a land purchase made by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803. He bought the Louisiana territory from France, which was being led by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time, for 15,000,000 USD (about $320,000,000 in 2020 dollars). First, the men sent to France were allowed to spend up to 10 million USD in order to buy New Orleans and, if possible, the west bank of the Mississippi River. But then the French government said that for 5 million more dollars they would sell all of the Louisiana territory. Thomas Jefferson approved the deal and used his constitutional power to sign treaties to buy the land. The constitution does not say the president has the power to buy land from other countries, but he had the power to make treaties, so that is what he used.