In 1801, First Consul for Life Napoleon Bonaparte sent an army of 35,000 men to take control of the city of New Orleans, the key to the vast territory returned to France in 1800 by secret treaty with Spain. Along the way, the expeditionary force was supposed to make a quick detour and put down Toussaint L'Ouverture's slave revolt on Hispaniola, thus securing French influence in the Caribbean and, incidentally, a source of refined sugar to feed France's insatiable sweet tooth. As with many of Napoleon's overseas campaigns, the enterprise didn't work out as planned. Virtually the entire force was wiped out before it reached Louisiana; whoever wasn't killed by the rebels died of yellow fever instead. Thwarted in his ambitions, Napoleon offered to sell France's entire North American territory to the United States at the fire sale price of fifteen million dollars—three cents an acre—a strategic bargain that sealed the fortune of the new nation.

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