On this day in 1803, French Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand makes an unprecedented offer to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. As the foreign minister to French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Talleyrand was one of the most powerful men in the world. Three years earlier, Talleyrand had persuaded Napoleon that he could form a new French Empire in North America. The French had laid claim to the expansive swath of land west of the Mississippi River known as Louisiana Territory. In 1800, Napoleon furtively signed a treaty with Spain that officially gave France complete control of the territory. He then began to ready France’s army to occupy New Orleans. When President Thomas Jefferson learned of Napoleon’s plans in 1802, he was rightly concerned. Jefferson had long hoped the U.S. would expand westward beyond the Mississippi, but the fledgling American republic lacked the military might to challenge France for the territory. Jefferson hoped that his m...