At 4 cents an acre, the Louisiana Purchase was perhaps the best deal in real estate history.
The deal not only doubled the territory of the new United States, it was also a drastic change from French policy merely three years prior.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a man of fortune. He saw an opportunity in the French Revolution and the incompetencies of the French government after the execution of Robespierre.
In 1799, Bonaparte was behind a coup d’etat that overthrew the government of the French Revolution. But that didn’t mean Bonaparte rejected the Revolution - he wanted to export it.
