Yesterday Cypress Hills History
The Louisiana Purchase
What do the Cypress Hills and area have to do with the Louisiana Purchase? The very southern portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan were once part of the Louisiana territory. The territory initially belonged to France, then ceded to Spain, ceded back to France, and finally purchased by the United States in late 1803 (Fig 1).
Figure 1: Louisiana Purchase December 1803. Source: History Channel
The vast Louisiana territory was originally claimed and controlled by France and named La Louisiane in honour of the French King Louis XIV in 1682 with New Orleans eventually becoming its political and socially colourful administrative center. In 1762 near the end of the Seven Years War and under the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Louisiana (la Luisiana, Fig 2) was secretly acquired by Spain from France under King Carlos III. Under this treaty and the Treaty of Paris (1763), Great Britain under King George III gained control of the French colonies in Canada, and the vast Louisiana territory was divided at the Mississippi River with the eastern half ceded to Great Britain. In 1800, Spain, under the Treaty of San Ildefonso ceded Louisiana back to France under King Carlos IV in exchange for Tuscany. The Treaty of Aranjues in 1801 confirmed the exchange and Spain agreed to administer the territory in trust until the French officials arrived and formalized the transfer on Nov 30, 1803.
Figure 2: Spanish Louisiana (la Luisiana) in 1762. Source: Wikipedia.org
With the public beheading of the unpopular French King Louis XVI for high treason on Jan 21, 1793, at the Place de la Revolution in Paris, Louis XVI's juvenile son Louis XVII became the successor. His son was imprisoned and later died in captivity, and never had the opportunity to rule. Napoleon Bonaparte took command of the French army and was eventually crowned Emperor of France in 1804 (Bonaparte I). Napoleon's dream of establishing a lucrative slave-based economy in Louisiana was shattered when he failed to suppress the slave revolt in St. Dominque (Haiti). This failure coupled with the possible renewed war with Great Britain led Napoleon to sell Louisiana to the United States on Dec 20, 1803. The treaty between Spain and France was signed in secret to keep the United States president in the dark until the French flag was hoisted in New Orleans, and to infuriate the British once they learned Napoleon sold the territory to the United States. The United States got back the Spanish-controlled wharfs in New Orleans which were closed to keep United States expansionism in check until 1804 when the wharfs became the property of the United States government.
The United States under President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory for $15 million which covered an area of 828,000 sq mi or 2,140,000 sq km. Interestingly, in 1803 no one could provide maps or documents that delineated the northern, western, and southern boundaries of the territory with any accuracy. This uncertainty gave the United States freedom to advance its own claims beyond the Mississippi River during negotiations with Spain to specify the territorial boundaries. Much of the territory remained unexplored by Europeans resulting in the establishment of the Corps of Discovery unit within the United States Army (May 1804-Sept 1806) to learn how the Louisiana Purchase could be exploited economically, to explore the territory, and to establish trade and United States sovereignty over the native Americans along the Missouri River. The Corps also had a secret mission to find a living mastodon. This unit was led by the famous explorers US Army Captain, Meriwether Lewis and his selected partner, William Clark. In Canada, David Thompson was their contemporary who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company (1785-1796) and the North West Company (1797-1812) exploring the territory west of Upper Canada for Great Britain. Thompson never explored southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, and Lewis and Clark never made it north past the 49th parallel.
The farther north the Louisiana territory extended the vaguer the boundary. It was implied by President Jefferson and his cabinet that the northern boundary included the tributaries of the Missouri River (Fig 3). The Milk River in Alberta, the Popular River, the Frenchman River, and Big Muddy Creek in Saskatchewan all flowed south and are part of the Missouri River watershed that flowed into the Mississippi River and south into the Gulf of Mexico.
Figure 3: Missouri River watershed. Source: Modified after Wikipedia.org
The vague northern boundary became well defined in the Treaty of 1818 (Fig 4) when Great Britain (King George III) and the United States (President James Monroe) established the international boundary on the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods westward to the Rocky Mountains. The southern portion of Alberta and Saskatchewan, once belonging to the US, was now part of Great Britain.
Figure
4: United States territorial acquisitions and adjustments. Sources
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