The Roots of the Political and Colonial Situation

The British proved to be the better colonizers, in the sense that the colonies of British the States, the future united States, grew more rapidly in population and sank deeper roots in the soil than did French colonies. However, the French were actually more adequate to(p) explorers; it was French voyagers and trappers who explored much of the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi Basin, an feat preserved by names like Champlain and LaSalle. A productive trade in pelts was established, and French activities in North America became an integrated part of the overall French colonial syllabus championed by Colbert under Louis XIV (Keats 140ff). By contrast, the British American colonies were ignored and neglected, a haven of riffraff and religious zealots, which operated with virtual(prenominal) autonomy under general British suzerainty.

By the centerfield of the 18th century, Spain was no longer a major European power, and in spite of its vast colonial holdings in the forward-looking being, it was no longer an active contender in colonial expansion. At best, Spain could hope only(prenominal) to hold on to what it already held, and that only with difficulty. Russians were penetrating in the far northwest, but Russia could never be an important factor: The Russians had too much besides to digest in Siberia and its Far East Asian territories to dismiss effort on holdings so

Whatever the outcome of the French regaining lah, it was thus potential to be bad for the United States. Accordingly, the Jefferson Administration made its concerns clear. escritoire of State Madison declared that a French strawman in Louisiana could only "cause daily collisions" (Johnstone 68). Jefferson detect:

The broader strategic situation also argued against Napoleon's immediately playing the Louisiana card. The British fleet was too strong for France to prevail in a maritime and colonial war. After Napoleon's failure to tone down Santo Domingo, active colonial operations in the New World were effectively shelved (Cunningham 264).

Under the Federalists, the West, including Louisiana, was not a central concern.

Commercial, maritime, and eastwardlooking, the Federalists followed an "Atlantic" thrust in their policy. The election of Thomas Jefferson and the "Republicans" in 1800, however, brought a Western-oriented, agrarian element into dominance in Washington. The Jeffersonian concern in the West was both geostrategic and ideological. In geostrategic terms, Louisiana--ill-defined and un pin downd though it was, was a potential barrier hemming in the United States from the west. Of course, this had been true for the Federalist regime as well. But the panic of any European power's playing the Louisiana card was only latent so long as Louisiana remained in Spain's feeble hands. For Americans, as much as for British or French, Spain was an acceptable "escrow agency" to hold Louisiana until the time came to settle it for good.

But the Jeffersonians also had an ideological concern with Louisiana. It was an immense software of land, and cheap land was fundamental to the Jeffersonian concept of democracy. Jefferson was risible of trade and industry, which he saw as leading to wage-dependence among the the vulgar and an aggressive, "imperialistic" attitude among the mercantile elite. His ideal was a arcadian society, largely self-contained, with
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