Louisiana purchase mapped

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The Louisiana Purchase was the purchase of the territory of Louisiana by the U.S. from France in 1803. In return for 15 million dollars (~$18 per square mile), the U.S.obtained 828 thousand square miles or 2.14 million square kilometers. But, in reality, before purchase France only controlled a small part of this territory, mostly inhabited by Native Americans.

The map below shows the United States of America before Louisiana was purchased in 1803.

The purchase of Louisiana almost doubled the original area of the U.S.

The purchase included:

• Land from 15 present U.S. states, including the whole of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska, and two Canadian provinces
• Large parts of states North Dakota and South Dakota.
• The area of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide.
• The part of Minnesota west of the Mississippi River.
• The northeastern area of New Mexico.
• Northern parts of Texas.
• New Orleans and the parts of the present state of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River.
• Small fragments of land within Alberta and Saskatchewan.

At the time of the Louisiana purchase, the territory of Louisiana’s non-native population was just about 60 thousand dwellers, of whom half were enslaved Africans.

The western boundaries of the Louisiana purchase were later determined by the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain, while the Treaty of 1818 with Britain revised the northern borderlands of the purchase.