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The Louisiana Purchase: Not a Purchase · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
0:04
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,
0:13
Speaker 1: and there's Chuck, and Jerry is on standby on our
0:17
Speaker 1: phone ready for any issue to arise. We're supposed to
0:20
Speaker 1: text her. And of course that makes this stuff you
0:23
Speaker 1: should know, the too much information addition, that's right. And
0:29
Speaker 1: you didn't even say a dish, A dish. I know,
0:32
Speaker 1: I'm growing up. Look at me. So how are you
0:34
Speaker 1: doing good? How are you good as well? Good? So, Chuck,
0:40
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this one for a number of reasons. One,
0:43
Speaker 1: we get to take a really standard, universally understood um
0:49
Speaker 1: part of American history and smash it to bits and
0:52
Speaker 1: explain how it really happened and what it really was
0:55
Speaker 1: and what really went on. I love history stuff like that,
0:58
Speaker 1: don't you? I do? Uh? And this is a good
1:01
Speaker 1: one because it is. Uh. If you're like someone who
1:04
Speaker 1: enjoys watching Jeopardy or playing in any sort of trivia
1:08
Speaker 1: nights or trivia games, trivial pursuit stuff usually no trivial
1:13
Speaker 1: pursuit Yeah, available everywhere. Uh, this is just get info.
1:16
Speaker 1: I feel like these kind of questions. It's the Louisiana
1:19
Speaker 1: Purchase is just such sort of a softball kind of
1:23
Speaker 1: thing for trivia games. And I don't mean that it's easy.
1:26
Speaker 1: I just mean there's just so much in there, and
1:29
Speaker 1: it's not like people go like, well, how am I
1:30
Speaker 1: supposed to know about the Louisiana Purchase. Like it reshaped
1:34
Speaker 1: America in ways or the United States rather in ways
1:38
Speaker 1: that were just the tendrils just kept going and kept going. Yeah,
1:43
Speaker 1: you can make a really good case that it helps
1:45
Speaker 1: shape the world, because you know, it was the thing
1:48
Speaker 1: that jumps started the United States into UM, I guess
1:53
Speaker 1: the the initiation of it as a up and coming
1:57
Speaker 1: world power, because yeah, we doubled our sur fas area
2:00
Speaker 1: and size the United States did. UM and I saw
2:04
Speaker 1: like and chuck to the Declaration of Independence and the
2:07
Speaker 1: Constitution and that's where the that's where the list ended.
2:10
Speaker 1: They basically said, those three things are the most important
2:13
Speaker 1: parts of early American history that helped make the country. UM.
2:19
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of like really interesting stuff to it.
2:21
Speaker 1: But there's also like a lot of the history that
2:23
Speaker 1: just isn't talked about, doesn't get focused on enough, And like,
2:27
Speaker 1: what's one of the really good things about like living
2:29
Speaker 1: in the twenty centuries, Like we're really starting to examine
2:32
Speaker 1: that stuff more and we're taking these really kind of um,
2:37
Speaker 1: you know, primary and basic and kind of watered down
2:40
Speaker 1: versions of historical events and like really kind of bringing
2:42
Speaker 1: them to life for better for worse. Yeah, I mean
2:45
Speaker 1: it's not every day that a new, burgeoning nation can
2:49
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to acquire about eight hundred and fifty
2:54
Speaker 1: thousand square miles uh, not acres square miles uh and
2:59
Speaker 1: acquire are as we'll see more like the right to
3:03
Speaker 1: acquire more like the right to kind of take Yeah,
3:08
Speaker 1: which is what Oh, I know what you mean. I've
3:10
Speaker 1: done the research. I know where you're going with that. Well,
3:13
Speaker 1: should we go back then to how the name Luisiana Louisiana.
3:19
Speaker 1: It sounds Italian when I say it, Yeah, I don't
3:21
Speaker 1: think that's how it said. It's really French though, right, yeah, Louisian. Yeah.
3:28
Speaker 1: Exactly what was going on was there were people in France.
3:32
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people are from France rather uh,
3:35
Speaker 1: and in fact they were bold enough to call it
3:38
Speaker 1: new France. Uh. This was King Louis the what would
3:42
Speaker 1: that be? Yes? Read, I'm brushing up on my Roman numerals,
3:47
Speaker 1: and King Louis said, all right, Mr French explorer, I'm
3:53
Speaker 1: gonna let my friend Josh over here to my right
3:55
Speaker 1: to pronounce your name. Let me try Rene Robert Valier,
4:01
Speaker 1: Sir de la Salle. Quite a name. But Louis said, hey, dude, um,
4:06
Speaker 1: you've got authority to explore all the the western part
4:10
Speaker 1: of this area I called New France. You got a
4:13
Speaker 1: monopoly on trade there on Buffalo hides. Go knock yourself out.
4:17
Speaker 1: Licel did just that in two floated down the Mighty
4:22
Speaker 1: Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and said, you know what,
4:25
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna say, all of this area it belongs
4:28
Speaker 1: to France, and I'm gonna name it after h the
4:31
Speaker 1: gentleman who handed over my charter. I guess uh. And
4:35
Speaker 1: it was with an E at the time, Louisian, Louis Louisian.
4:42
Speaker 1: I don't know why the Italian keeps bobbing up the
4:45
Speaker 1: land of Louis. It was basically they added in l
4:48
Speaker 1: A at the beginning and then switched out the A
4:50
Speaker 1: for an E, or you know, it would later become Louisiana.
4:54
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's Louisiane iced tea bags are a
4:59
Speaker 1: nod to is it spelled with ane? Yeah, a n
5:03
Speaker 1: any I think and they take the eye out. It's
5:06
Speaker 1: all messed up. I read somewhere chuck that um that
5:10
Speaker 1: Cavellier when he got to the um delta of the
5:14
Speaker 1: Mississippi River where it hit the Gulf of Mexico, he
5:16
Speaker 1: like located the indigenous people that lived around there and
5:20
Speaker 1: read a proclamation to them. It's basically he said, hey, um,
5:23
Speaker 1: can you stand still while I read this? And he proclaimed,
5:26
Speaker 1: like you said that whole area belonging to King Louis
5:29
Speaker 1: and they're just sitting there like, what are you talking about?
5:33
Speaker 1: Were so? But this was how um, this part of
5:35
Speaker 1: the world, this part of North America was settled. It
5:38
Speaker 1: was by the French and um they figured that. And
5:42
Speaker 1: I mean this was an enormous swath of of territory
5:46
Speaker 1: from Canada down to the Gulf of Mexico, from the
5:50
Speaker 1: west of the Mississippi River all the way to anyone
5:54
Speaker 1: knows how. Yeah, you just go as far as you want.
5:56
Speaker 1: No one had any idea what was over that way
5:58
Speaker 1: except for until you ran into the Spanish and California.
6:01
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure they were there yet. So um
6:04
Speaker 1: that that's how the English, um, the Dutch who were
6:08
Speaker 1: up in New York, the French, the Spanish, how all
6:10
Speaker 1: of these world powers that were running around North America
6:13
Speaker 1: viewed the whole thing. And that was frances And so
6:16
Speaker 1: France said, all right, awesome, let's exploit this. We're gonna
6:19
Speaker 1: make just a staggering amount of money, and I'm going
6:22
Speaker 1: to let this one particular person. Uh. In seventeen twelve,
6:26
Speaker 1: Antoine crazat Um have the the charter to basically develop
6:32
Speaker 1: this territory into New France. Like we called it kind
6:36
Speaker 1: of prematurely. Yeah, that they he didn't get a lot
6:39
Speaker 1: of support from France. Uh, they kind of handed this
6:41
Speaker 1: over to him, and like you said, it was such
6:44
Speaker 1: a big area, like it was just too unwieldy basically
6:48
Speaker 1: to control and maintain and try to manage. And he
6:51
Speaker 1: lost a ton of money. I think it only took
6:54
Speaker 1: it took less than five years when he went back
6:57
Speaker 1: to the king and said, you know what, I appreciate
6:59
Speaker 1: the charter, but with all due respect, I would like
7:04
Speaker 1: to be released from it. And you know that was fine.
7:07
Speaker 1: He was released from the charter, but the French expeditions
7:09
Speaker 1: kind of continued there for a while, but it was
7:13
Speaker 1: sort of um, you know, they were outnumbered. They were uh.
7:17
Speaker 1: The settlements were sparse, mostly still indigenous Americans populating the
7:21
Speaker 1: area until seventeen sixty two when the Seven Years War
7:26
Speaker 1: happened and France said, you know what, this territory is
7:30
Speaker 1: now going to belong to Spain. But Spain didn't really
7:33
Speaker 1: know what to do with it either, right, No, they
7:36
Speaker 1: had I think even less of a presence in UM
7:40
Speaker 1: in this I guess Louisiana territory than the French did.
7:44
Speaker 1: I saw that even when Spain kind of ruled this
7:47
Speaker 1: area as far as the European powers were concerned for
7:49
Speaker 1: thirty seven years, there were more French officials calling the
7:53
Speaker 1: shots there then there were Spanish officials, and um, I
7:57
Speaker 1: think they were the greatest minority of all. The greatest
8:01
Speaker 1: majority were the indigenous tribes in the area. But then
8:04
Speaker 1: as far as Europeans went, you had Um English, you
8:08
Speaker 1: had a lot of French people, you had UM, a
8:10
Speaker 1: lot of people who had come down from Um Canada,
8:14
Speaker 1: the Acadians who went on to become the Cajuns. They
8:17
Speaker 1: were living in the area at the time. Um, and
8:21
Speaker 1: it was just kind of uh. Spain was just they
8:24
Speaker 1: just had the thing, they owned it, they weren't doing
8:26
Speaker 1: much with it. Yeah, so they tried here and there too,
8:31
Speaker 1: not you know, uh to not excellent results. There was
8:34
Speaker 1: a colonial governor named Don Antonio del uh Ulloa. I
8:40
Speaker 1: guess will that be right? I think? And he said,
8:43
Speaker 1: all right, you know, we own this place technically, guys,
8:46
Speaker 1: so I'd like to try to enforce some of our
8:48
Speaker 1: rules if you don't mind about trade. And the French
8:51
Speaker 1: leaders there said, yes, we very much do mind because
8:54
Speaker 1: you're not calling the shots around here, despite the fact
8:56
Speaker 1: that you quote unquote owned this land. So they revolted
9:00
Speaker 1: drove him out of the colony. In seventeen uh, Spain
9:04
Speaker 1: was able to quash that rebellion get a new governor
9:07
Speaker 1: in there. I guess. I guess they were hoping with
9:09
Speaker 1: a little more backbone, uh, and started saying like, hey,
9:13
Speaker 1: you know, fellow Spaniards, why don't you go and settle
9:16
Speaker 1: that land, like we got all this great land. Please
9:19
Speaker 1: go there and farm and try and you know, sort
9:21
Speaker 1: of steak our claim. Yeah, it took also one of
9:24
Speaker 1: the reasons that they they took so long to encourage
9:27
Speaker 1: people to go do that and just kind of just
9:30
Speaker 1: approached the whole thing with like it was just kind
9:32
Speaker 1: of there was because to the Spanish, the Louisiana Territory
9:36
Speaker 1: was a buffer between the English and then later on
9:39
Speaker 1: the Americans to the east and their territory Texas, Mexico, California,
9:45
Speaker 1: all that to the west. Um, and it was a
9:49
Speaker 1: really just a nice little kind of no man's land
9:52
Speaker 1: that Spain owned so that they could be like, you
9:54
Speaker 1: need to get out, But they were more interested in
9:57
Speaker 1: it for the this the kind of distance put between
10:00
Speaker 1: the English and then the Americans and the Spanish colonies. Yeah,
10:04
Speaker 1: so it served a purpose to them, even if they
10:07
Speaker 1: weren't as intent on you know, settling it, I guess right.
10:11
Speaker 1: And then so as far as the Americans were concerned,
10:14
Speaker 1: when when America became a country, by the time eighteen
10:17
Speaker 1: hundred rolled around, and think that was the year that
10:19
Speaker 1: Jefferson was elected, and Jefferson kind of approached the whole
10:23
Speaker 1: thing with We're totally cool Spain owns, uh, the Louisiana Territory.
10:27
Speaker 1: We're okay with that right now, Spain's letting us use
10:30
Speaker 1: the Mississippi. It's letting us use the Port of New Orleans.
10:33
Speaker 1: It's letting us use the warehouses in the Port of
10:35
Speaker 1: New Orleans. These were really big deals because that was
10:38
Speaker 1: how you got stuff out to Europe. In North America
10:42
Speaker 1: was basically out of the Port of New Orleans. UM
10:45
Speaker 1: for a lot of stuff, right, especially the Midwestern stuff. UM.
10:49
Speaker 1: And as long as things were like that, it was
10:51
Speaker 1: all good. But Jefferson was very smart and he was like,
10:54
Speaker 1: there's a really good chance that things are not going
10:56
Speaker 1: to remain the same for very long. And he was right, Boy,
11:00
Speaker 1: that sounds like a great cliffhanger, I think, so all right, well,
11:03
Speaker 1: let's take a break. We'll be right back. Jefferson is
11:06
Speaker 1: feeling his oats. He thinks he can tell the future.
11:10
Speaker 1: And as Josh said, he was kind of right, and
11:11
Speaker 1: will explore that right after this, Chuck, that was a
11:32
Speaker 1: heck of a lead up. I didn't think I was
11:35
Speaker 1: gonna quit talking for a second. Just the whole podcast
11:39
Speaker 1: spills out of your mouth from that point on, all right,
11:41
Speaker 1: and you're just sitting there like I thought we were
11:43
Speaker 1: taking over him. Uh so this is like the end
11:47
Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century. Uh, Spain is not doing so hot.
11:51
Speaker 1: Financially because of just kind of constant warring in Europe
11:55
Speaker 1: for you know, many hundreds of years. Oh dude, it
11:58
Speaker 1: was really bad that century. It was a bad century
12:01
Speaker 1: for the European powers. Yeah. So, I mean it's just
12:03
Speaker 1: a money drain on everyone. So Spain is hurting financially,
12:06
Speaker 1: and in just before the turn of the century, in
12:09
Speaker 1: sev Napoleon uh seizes control in France and he says,
12:16
Speaker 1: you know, he's you know what Napoleon wanted to do.
12:19
Speaker 1: He wanted to rule the world the Andi Christ well exactly.
12:24
Speaker 1: So part of that, you know, obviously would include the
12:26
Speaker 1: America's and that's not just you know, Louis Louisiana territory,
12:30
Speaker 1: but like all of the America's Central America down to
12:33
Speaker 1: South America. And so uh he tried to do so.
12:37
Speaker 1: In eighteen hundred, they uh signed a secret treaty with
12:42
Speaker 1: Spain called the Third Treaty of San Il Defonso. Got
12:47
Speaker 1: it again, buddy, you're on a rule. And the Louisiana territory,
12:52
Speaker 1: which included New Orleans of course, came back to France
12:55
Speaker 1: and said, here you go, Spain, um will help you
12:58
Speaker 1: out with your money problems. And I understand, the nephew
13:02
Speaker 1: of the Queen of Spain wants some area that to
13:05
Speaker 1: call his own, so you can have a trucial Etruria
13:09
Speaker 1: in Italy which is now I think Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria.
13:13
Speaker 1: They're in central Italy. And they said great, thank you
13:16
Speaker 1: so much. Yeah. So Spain says like a black check dealer,
13:21
Speaker 1: as like I'm out of the Louisiana territory, and Frances like, yes,
13:24
Speaker 1: we've got it back. And from what I understand, Napoleon
13:27
Speaker 1: UM viewed this largely as a shipping, a storage and
13:31
Speaker 1: shipping and exporting center. New Orleans was like the crown
13:35
Speaker 1: jewel of Louisiana territory, but he viewed it more as
13:39
Speaker 1: a um and assist to the real gem in the
13:44
Speaker 1: French Empire, which was Saint Domain, which is now called Haiti,
13:49
Speaker 1: which was one of the most profitable plots of earth
13:54
Speaker 1: on Earth at the time. I read Chuck that Saint
13:57
Speaker 1: doming Um, and I've looked at up. I'm pretty surelet's
14:00
Speaker 1: tell you say it, Um, you're right before the before
14:04
Speaker 1: the revolt, and I believe eighteen hundred um. They were
14:08
Speaker 1: just the taxes alone that were paid by the goods
14:13
Speaker 1: that were produced there is equal to twelve billion dollars
14:17
Speaker 1: in US dollars today. Yeah, and that was just the
14:22
Speaker 1: taxes that were being paid, let alone all the productivity.
14:25
Speaker 1: So Napoleon viewed the Louisiana into territory is like the
14:29
Speaker 1: place that all that stuff could come to and then
14:31
Speaker 1: spread out to the rest of the world. Um. That
14:33
Speaker 1: was how we viewed it. Um. The other thing that
14:36
Speaker 1: about the French having it is that Jefferson was like, man,
14:40
Speaker 1: this is not good because we've got really good stuff
14:43
Speaker 1: going on with the Spanish letting us use the Mississippi
14:46
Speaker 1: River and the Port of New Orleans, and I don't
14:48
Speaker 1: think the French are going to do that. And he
14:50
Speaker 1: turned out to be right, yeah, because they, like you said,
14:53
Speaker 1: they had a sweet deal going. Uh. The one thing
14:55
Speaker 1: we didn't mention was that part of the agreement with
14:57
Speaker 1: Spain because you know, they still wanted that offer uh
15:01
Speaker 1: to be intact. So they you know, said, France can
15:03
Speaker 1: have it back, but like, you can't give it away
15:06
Speaker 1: or sell it to anybody else. Okay, Napoleon, do you
15:09
Speaker 1: will you shake on that? And he said sure, My
15:13
Speaker 1: word is my word is my bond. So that was
15:16
Speaker 1: a big important part of it. Uh. Like you said,
15:18
Speaker 1: Jefferson is getting a little bit nervous because New Orleans
15:22
Speaker 1: was very important to us as well. At the time,
15:25
Speaker 1: tensions are mounting. Uh. In eight ten o two, Spain
15:29
Speaker 1: revokes those rights that they had previously given us traders
15:34
Speaker 1: uh in New Orleans. And they were like, wait a minute.
15:36
Speaker 1: You said you could keep our stuff here and use
15:38
Speaker 1: these warehouses. They said, not so much anymore. And Jefferson said,
15:42
Speaker 1: Napoleon he's behind all this. I know, he is that
15:46
Speaker 1: little stubby uh runt. He's trying to keep this clean.
15:53
Speaker 1: It's really hard when I'm doing Jefferson, because you know
15:55
Speaker 1: that guy, yeh, potty mouth. So he said, this is
15:59
Speaker 1: all on Napoleon. I bet and I bet you anything
16:02
Speaker 1: that they're gonna shut everything down soon. And so you know,
16:06
Speaker 1: this got people, um pretty upset. In the early United States,
16:11
Speaker 1: there were people that said, no, let's let's take it
16:14
Speaker 1: back by force. There was a senator in Pennsylvania named
16:17
Speaker 1: James Ross who was very big on that and lobby
16:20
Speaker 1: for Jefferson to send actual, an actual army down there
16:23
Speaker 1: of fifty men too, to take this land. Because there
16:27
Speaker 1: was a big deal. You know, oh, it's a huge deal. Um.
16:30
Speaker 1: Other the Federalist Party said no, you know, screw that,
16:33
Speaker 1: Let's just succeed and let's form our own nation, which
16:37
Speaker 1: includes New Orleans. And so things were getting really up
16:41
Speaker 1: to sort of like a fever pitch about whether or
16:44
Speaker 1: not the United States was gonna have access to this
16:46
Speaker 1: territory for shipping. Right. Um, before we continue, Chuck, I
16:50
Speaker 1: want to show you a little magic trick. You ready,
16:53
Speaker 1: m I'm going to I'm going to delete a thousand
16:57
Speaker 1: email drafts right now. What you call Napoleon a runt?
17:01
Speaker 1: And he actually was average size. He was, he was
17:04
Speaker 1: it's a big it's a big deal, and it was.
17:06
Speaker 1: It all came down to a difference between the French
17:08
Speaker 1: foot and the English foot. There's a mistranslation, and so
17:12
Speaker 1: he was actually like five eleven. That's right. I'm not
17:15
Speaker 1: trying to correct you. I'm just trying to those from
17:18
Speaker 1: those emails. I knew that. But what my point is, Jefferson,
17:21
Speaker 1: I've seen his diaries. He very much called him a runt.
17:23
Speaker 1: Whether or not he was average sized or not, did
17:25
Speaker 1: he really wow? Well, Also, Jefferson was like I think
17:29
Speaker 1: nine and a half feet tall, so he would have
17:31
Speaker 1: considered someone five eleven a run anyone under seven feets all,
17:34
Speaker 1: it was a pretty small person. To Jefferson, Yeah, yeah,
17:37
Speaker 1: for sure. So, um, because of the Haitian Revolution, uh,
17:43
Speaker 1: like Hatie became the first black run country, um outside
17:48
Speaker 1: of Africa in the world because there was a slave revolt,
17:52
Speaker 1: and it was I mean, that's an enormous deal. Even
17:55
Speaker 1: in retrospective at the time it was it was like
17:58
Speaker 1: earth shattering for for Europe because you know, France was
18:01
Speaker 1: making so much money off of this, but you know
18:04
Speaker 1: it was having a trickling outward effect on all the
18:07
Speaker 1: other countries as well, who were really benefiting from this
18:10
Speaker 1: incredibly productive forced slave labor um. And so when that stopped,
18:16
Speaker 1: it had a really huge effect on the economy. And
18:19
Speaker 1: to Napoleon it was like, well, then what's the point
18:21
Speaker 1: of Louisiana territory anymore? If it was just a supporting
18:25
Speaker 1: character for Saint doming And now Saint Domag is now
18:29
Speaker 1: Haiti and we don't have any interest in it anymore. Um, like,
18:33
Speaker 1: there's no point in owning the Louisiana territory. And he
18:36
Speaker 1: started stroking his chin and he thought, first he thought
18:42
Speaker 1: I should grow a soul patch. And then after that
18:44
Speaker 1: he said, what is a soul patch? And then the
18:47
Speaker 1: third thing he thought at that moment was I'm gonna
18:50
Speaker 1: sell New France the Louisiana territory to the Americans. Yeah.
18:55
Speaker 1: I mean the other reason too, is like he was
18:57
Speaker 1: mad with power, but he also had a lot of
19:01
Speaker 1: irons in the fire, and Louisiana was a long ways away,
19:06
Speaker 1: so he was like, you know, and also to take
19:08
Speaker 1: on like more warring now way over there. It's like
19:12
Speaker 1: I'm spread a little bit thin, even though I am. Uh,
19:16
Speaker 1: everyone knows an average height, right, And everyone nodded and
19:18
Speaker 1: said yes, yes, yes, And he's like, in history will
19:21
Speaker 1: view me that way, right, it's just an average height person, Yes, sir,
19:25
Speaker 1: absolutely sir. And he said okay, he said, so selling
19:28
Speaker 1: it won't make me look short, and they nope, not
19:30
Speaker 1: at all. He said, okay, well we'll proceed. Then I
19:34
Speaker 1: saw he also thought, chuck that it would be really
19:36
Speaker 1: great to basically help a fledgling nation become a really
19:40
Speaker 1: big nation freshly balance out and temper well more more,
19:44
Speaker 1: to be an enemy of his enemy, which was and
19:48
Speaker 1: to kind of give the Brits or run for their money.
19:50
Speaker 1: So he did all these things in one master stroke,
19:53
Speaker 1: which was selling the Louisiana territory. The boy looking. I mean,
19:57
Speaker 1: things were just wild back then, with uh world shaping stuff.
20:04
Speaker 1: I would argue that still goes on today, not like that.
20:09
Speaker 1: No really, I mean, do you do you think NATO's
20:15
Speaker 1: fighting a proxy war with Russia through Ukraine right now?
20:18
Speaker 1: So I would say, so, yeah, well, yeah, I mean,
20:21
Speaker 1: these things happen. I'm just saying it seemed like back
20:24
Speaker 1: then it was happening everywhere, all at once. No, yeah,
20:30
Speaker 1: I still I still think that happens today. I don't
20:33
Speaker 1: know that not everywhere all at once. Like Canada is
20:35
Speaker 1: not at war with the US to try and take territory.
20:37
Speaker 1: And Canada's greatest trick is convincing the world that they're
20:41
Speaker 1: laid back? Are they? Are they laying in? Wait? Oh boy,
20:50
Speaker 1: that's all we need? Yeah? A million guns chuck, That's
20:54
Speaker 1: all I have to say. All right, So this is
20:58
Speaker 1: um let's call it eighteen oh you, because that was
21:01
Speaker 1: the year that it was. And Jefferson and you know, Jeffy,
21:05
Speaker 1: it takes a long time to get word about stuff.
21:07
Speaker 1: As I realized when I was creating this UM Jefferson
21:10
Speaker 1: doesn't know, you know that Napoleon's has this plan to
21:13
Speaker 1: sell us territory back, or not back to us, but
21:16
Speaker 1: to us. So he orders our minister to France, Robert Livingston,
21:21
Speaker 1: to go to France to their foreign minister and say
21:25
Speaker 1: his last name is tally Ran, great name, and say, hey, listen,
21:29
Speaker 1: we'd like to put a stop to the acquisition of
21:31
Speaker 1: the territory from Spain unless it's already finalized. And in
21:36
Speaker 1: the back of the set he was like, if it
21:38
Speaker 1: is finalized, you know, maybe go over uh and see
21:42
Speaker 1: if you can buy New Orleans. See if they'll put
21:45
Speaker 1: New Orleans up for sale. Okay, I'll go over there.
21:49
Speaker 1: And he took uh he took a future president with him,
21:52
Speaker 1: right or was he former president? Future? I think we
21:56
Speaker 1: only had Yeah, I always get the order mixed up
21:59
Speaker 1: there in the early days. I think Jefferson was the third.
22:03
Speaker 1: I really hope Jefferson was the third, but yeah, James
22:06
Speaker 1: Monroe went along to help Livingston too, and UM they
22:11
Speaker 1: they started negotiating. UM. They were authorized to spend up
22:14
Speaker 1: to ten million dollars and they started negotiating with UM.
22:18
Speaker 1: A guy named Barbe Marbois Francois Barbe Marbois, and he
22:23
Speaker 1: was a politician. I don't think he was the foreign minister,
22:26
Speaker 1: because I think tally Rand was the foreign minister, right,
22:29
Speaker 1: tally Rand was the foreign minister. Correct, Okay, So so
22:32
Speaker 1: Barbe Marbois was a politician who was close to Napoleon,
22:35
Speaker 1: who was instructed to basically broker the steal. And then
22:38
Speaker 1: tally Rand came along and and said I'm going to
22:40
Speaker 1: help out too, And so as they started to talk
22:43
Speaker 1: and negotiate, I think within the first couple of days
22:46
Speaker 1: maybe Barbee Marbois and tally Rand said henceforth known as
22:50
Speaker 1: the French contingent um. They said, hey, how about this
22:55
Speaker 1: um have you? Would you guys be interested in purchasing
22:58
Speaker 1: the whole Louisiana? Terry Tory and Monroe and Livi said like,
23:02
Speaker 1: oh my god, oh my god. Yeah cool, and they're like,
23:06
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think Monroe like examined his fingernails
23:09
Speaker 1: and said, well, we'll think about it. We might take
23:12
Speaker 1: it off of her. Now, how much do you want?
23:15
Speaker 1: And the Prince said twenty two million bucks, And he
23:19
Speaker 1: leaned over and said, well, Jefferson wanted chin million for
23:22
Speaker 1: new Orleans twenty two mill for all of it's not
23:25
Speaker 1: a bad deal. No, and uh and Monroe said six
23:30
Speaker 1: nay on the eel day. Wait, what would that be?
23:35
Speaker 1: Nix the deal, which actually is the opposite of what
23:38
Speaker 1: he would have said. But anyway, well he said, let's
23:40
Speaker 1: try and talk him down. Yeah. I think they countered
23:42
Speaker 1: with eight million. Right, they settled on fifteen, just five
23:47
Speaker 1: million more than he was authorized to pay for New
23:49
Speaker 1: Orleans alone. Right, you get another you know, eight hundred
23:53
Speaker 1: five thousand square miles. Right, that is a bargain. And
23:58
Speaker 1: that's how this whole thing's gone down in history as
24:00
Speaker 1: far as as most people look at that the French
24:04
Speaker 1: made a terrible real estate deal and the Americans made
24:06
Speaker 1: out like bandits. Because I think National Geographics said it
24:10
Speaker 1: was equivalent fifteen million dollars at the time, was equivalent
24:14
Speaker 1: to three two million dollars. I did the methods up
24:19
Speaker 1: to three four now, but at the time that came
24:23
Speaker 1: to about nine cents an acre, which is I mean
24:27
Speaker 1: in today's money, that's nine cents an acre. Um. So
24:32
Speaker 1: it's an incredible deal. Um. So of course they went
24:35
Speaker 1: for it. But like you said that, the mail was
24:37
Speaker 1: really slow at the time, so they couldn't wait to
24:41
Speaker 1: get authorization from Jefferson. They had to just decide on
24:44
Speaker 1: their own that this was too spectacular of a deal
24:46
Speaker 1: to walk away from and they were going to spend
24:48
Speaker 1: fifty more than they were authorized to to buy the
24:51
Speaker 1: Louisiana territory. And they did. And it took two months
24:54
Speaker 1: for Jefferson the President, to find out that this this
24:57
Speaker 1: deal had gone down two months so yeah, there wouldn't
25:00
Speaker 1: time to go back. Didn't spend another two months getting
25:03
Speaker 1: word back to Napoleon's party, the French contingent excuse me right,
25:09
Speaker 1: and apparently the whole um. They were putting pressure on
25:12
Speaker 1: the Americans by saying like, well, Napoleon's reconsidering this deal.
25:16
Speaker 1: The Americans were like, okay, all right, classic move. Yeah,
25:19
Speaker 1: he's not really sure now the offer might be off
25:22
Speaker 1: the table. So they announced the deal fourth of July
25:26
Speaker 1: eighteen o three. Um. Most people in the United States
25:29
Speaker 1: were obviously super psyched um, but not everyone. It seems
25:33
Speaker 1: that people in New England were, uh, they had a
25:36
Speaker 1: problem with it. They were like, hey, listen, we are
25:40
Speaker 1: kind of broke anyway, and we've already got enough land,
25:44
Speaker 1: Like who wants eight hundred and fifty thousand square miles
25:47
Speaker 1: to have to take care of when we're a fledgling
25:50
Speaker 1: nation and what we need now is to keep our
25:52
Speaker 1: coffers full. And Massachusetts Congressman Joseph Quincy said, you know,
25:57
Speaker 1: we should succeed because of this. There was a lot
25:59
Speaker 1: of threats to succeed. Thank goodness, that doesn't happen anymore, right, right,
26:04
Speaker 1: but they you know that was that didn't happen obviously. Um,
26:09
Speaker 1: there was another issue, which which was that Jefferson was
26:11
Speaker 1: a real strict constitutionalist and did not believe in a
26:18
Speaker 1: president just sort of exceeding their power. And he was like,
26:22
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't even know if what we
26:23
Speaker 1: did was strictly legal. This guy helped, Yeah, he was like,
26:28
Speaker 1: can you have someone check that? But I don't. I
26:30
Speaker 1: don't think we're allowed to even do this, are we?
26:33
Speaker 1: I mean he was right, No, there's no if you
26:35
Speaker 1: if you limit the presidential powers to a strict reading
26:38
Speaker 1: of the Constitution, No, nowhere in there it doesn't say
26:41
Speaker 1: the president is allowed to acquire land for the nation, right,
26:46
Speaker 1: I mean they can go by a condo or something
26:48
Speaker 1: if they want to privately. Sure, you know, the condo
26:53
Speaker 1: White House, that's what they call that White House West,
26:58
Speaker 1: nice little place on the Pacific Ocean, right. But but
27:01
Speaker 1: he was he was worried about this, so he said like, hey,
27:03
Speaker 1: maybe we should pass the constitutional amendment about this. Yeah,
27:08
Speaker 1: And they and you know, everyone was kind of debating.
27:10
Speaker 1: They're like, you know what, I don't think we need
27:12
Speaker 1: to add a constitutional amendment. I think it's probably okay. Uh,
27:16
Speaker 1: you know, all the all the like the early brilliant
27:19
Speaker 1: minds and early US government. We're trying to figure this out,
27:23
Speaker 1: kind of thinking that, hey, we got to move through
27:25
Speaker 1: with the purchase and we'll kind of figure it out later.
27:27
Speaker 1: If we need to add an amendment, maybe we can
27:29
Speaker 1: do that retroactively. Uh. And then his Treasury Secretary, Albert H.
27:35
Speaker 1: Gallatin said, you know what, Um, this should be allowed
27:39
Speaker 1: under your authority to make treaties. That's how I read it,
27:43
Speaker 1: at least, And Jefferson said that sounds good. Let's debate it.
27:47
Speaker 1: They debated it in eighteen oh three in October, and
27:50
Speaker 1: the Senate voted twenty four to seven that it was
27:54
Speaker 1: all good. Yeah, um, which makes sense. I think it
27:58
Speaker 1: was upheld later on in three by the Supreme Court
28:02
Speaker 1: by no less than Jefferson's political rival John Marshall. Justice
28:06
Speaker 1: John Marshall Um said, yeah, actually, this is totally correct.
28:11
Speaker 1: The presidents allowed to make treaties under the Constitution, and
28:14
Speaker 1: you can acquire land through treaties ipso facto, the president
28:17
Speaker 1: can acquire land. And ever since then that's just been
28:20
Speaker 1: you know, part of America, although it'll probably be reversed
28:23
Speaker 1: in the next couple of years. How about a break, Yes,
28:28
Speaker 1: all right, let's take a break and we'll talk about
28:31
Speaker 1: the fact that this really wasn't a purchase outright, Okay,
28:53
Speaker 1: Chuck so Um. Up to now, we've basically just been
28:57
Speaker 1: laying down the general, the generally understood Louisiana purchase, maybe
29:01
Speaker 1: with a few more details, and most people know more
29:04
Speaker 1: than I knew before we started researching this, I should say,
29:07
Speaker 1: But at this point we reached like the actual geopolitical,
29:13
Speaker 1: um like layer of this, this historical event of how
29:18
Speaker 1: the people at the time understood what was going on.
29:21
Speaker 1: Because in retrospect, like I said, everybody looks at the
29:24
Speaker 1: Louisiana purchase like the greatest real estate deal of all time.
29:27
Speaker 1: If you look up greatest deal in history, the Louisiana
29:32
Speaker 1: purchases cited as the greatest deal ever in almost every
29:37
Speaker 1: return on whatever search engine use. Right, So at the
29:41
Speaker 1: time they didn't really consider it that it wasn't like
29:45
Speaker 1: a purchase of land. Instead, it was a transfer of
29:50
Speaker 1: what the French had acquired through the doctrine of discovery,
29:54
Speaker 1: which is essentially this kind of again a geopolitical layer
29:58
Speaker 1: of the legal fiction that's laid over actual land that
30:03
Speaker 1: basically says, um, if you go to an area and
30:07
Speaker 1: you find people there but they're not Christians, you can
30:09
Speaker 1: claim that land as yourself and deal with the people
30:12
Speaker 1: who are indigenous as you see fit without interference from
30:15
Speaker 1: the other European powers. Right, So that's what they purchase. Um,
30:19
Speaker 1: you could call it a preemption or a territorial abstraction,
30:22
Speaker 1: but yeah, it basically meant your we almost bought the
30:26
Speaker 1: right to steal that land from Native Americans without uh yeah,
30:32
Speaker 1: like without Spain or France laying any claim to it.
30:35
Speaker 1: I would agree with what you just said, fully, but
30:37
Speaker 1: I would remove almost from it. Fully I guess the
30:40
Speaker 1: word I mean, yeah, it's crazy. And that whole doctrine,
30:43
Speaker 1: the discovery thing, by the way, came from people bull
30:48
Speaker 1: Papal decree from coincidentally, where the Pope said essentially that like,
30:54
Speaker 1: if you find a place that's considered Tera Nolus, which
30:57
Speaker 1: is unpopulated, essentially unpopulated by Christians, that's your that's your land.
31:02
Speaker 1: So it was basically legal cover for the genocide that
31:07
Speaker 1: followed from that point on. Yeah, and it's at this
31:10
Speaker 1: point that I'm gonna recommend again. I know mentioned it before,
31:13
Speaker 1: but the great documentary series from one called Exterminate All
31:18
Speaker 1: the Brutes. Uh, you, of all people would love it. Uh,
31:24
Speaker 1: it's really good, you would love it. Um. Raoul Pecks
31:27
Speaker 1: series Explorers Basically that was on HBO. I think just
31:31
Speaker 1: sort of the history of um colonialism, but but more
31:35
Speaker 1: than that, um the way he tells it through a
31:38
Speaker 1: modern lens and um just sort of from the dawn
31:41
Speaker 1: of time once people started um being mean to each other.
31:45
Speaker 1: Basically really really tough, heavy documentary series. So yeah, it
31:51
Speaker 1: sounds like my Friday night for sure, well several Friday nights,
31:55
Speaker 1: but yeah, sure if you watch that all on one
31:57
Speaker 1: Friday night and then very dark Saturday of so, um, Okay,
32:03
Speaker 1: I'll check it out. What's it call again the Brutes? Okay,
32:07
Speaker 1: I'll check it out because I happen to have HBO Max.
32:10
Speaker 1: Oh well too, maybe it's on there for my money,
32:13
Speaker 1: one of the best streaming services. So um, the just
32:19
Speaker 1: to kind of button this whole thing up. Basically, what
32:21
Speaker 1: happened under the doctrines of discovery and the preemption that
32:25
Speaker 1: America bought from France said that you can go do
32:31
Speaker 1: whatever you want with this land. You can acquire it
32:33
Speaker 1: however you want to. We're not going to do like
32:36
Speaker 1: you don't actually get any land from us. You get
32:39
Speaker 1: us saying this is yours now and the rest of Europe.
32:42
Speaker 1: We have to leave these guys alone while they do
32:44
Speaker 1: whatever they want. This is now part of their sovereign territory,
32:46
Speaker 1: from one Christian nation to another. Basically exactly that's right.
32:50
Speaker 1: So Um, the thing is is that I guess the
32:55
Speaker 1: Americans that were running the show at the time, led
32:57
Speaker 1: by Jefferson, we're well aware like this is this is
33:00
Speaker 1: there's plenty of people out there, and probably even more
33:03
Speaker 1: than we realize. I'm sure there's indigenous groups that we've
33:06
Speaker 1: not even encountered yet. He sent Lewis and Clark out
33:08
Speaker 1: in eighteen o four, like the the year after the
33:10
Speaker 1: purchase was announced. Um, but they had to get that
33:16
Speaker 1: land somehow, and this this preemption gave them the right
33:20
Speaker 1: to either to do however they pleased treaty paying people off,
33:25
Speaker 1: just straight up extermination however America wanted to do it.
33:29
Speaker 1: From that point on, that was Europe was just going
33:32
Speaker 1: to sit back and let it happen. Yeah, And it
33:34
Speaker 1: was kind of a mix of all those things. Um,
33:37
Speaker 1: the US did pay you know, uh, I mean it's
33:41
Speaker 1: a lot of money, but it's still not a lot
33:43
Speaker 1: of money, you know, uh, about eight point five billion
33:47
Speaker 1: dollars in modern dollars two Native Americans for the land
33:52
Speaker 1: within the Louisiana territory. But as we'll see, that happened
33:57
Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways, and there were some
33:59
Speaker 1: modern sort of repartitions that happened as a result here
34:03
Speaker 1: and there. Um, there was a land deal and these
34:05
Speaker 1: are just some examples. Um, there was you know, there
34:08
Speaker 1: was always sort of the threat of violence hanging over
34:11
Speaker 1: every deal that was made, so you have to factor
34:13
Speaker 1: that in. Um, there was a land deal with a
34:16
Speaker 1: native nation. This was after you know, we made the
34:19
Speaker 1: deal with France and the sac and Fox Nation sent
34:24
Speaker 1: uh some people to St. Louis sent a delegation there
34:27
Speaker 1: to say, hey, you know, uh, we murdered three squatters
34:30
Speaker 1: on our land. I would really like you to not retaliate,
34:34
Speaker 1: retaliate on us, because that would start a big mess.
34:36
Speaker 1: And so William Henry Harrison, who was the governor um
34:40
Speaker 1: of the Indiana Tory territory and now Louisiana, which was
34:45
Speaker 1: this is a lot of area that William Henry Harrison
34:47
Speaker 1: was covering, uh signed you know, put a lot of
34:51
Speaker 1: heat on them, and they signed away three point six
34:52
Speaker 1: million acres of land along the Mississippi, including about one
34:56
Speaker 1: point six million that was part of the Louisiana purchased
34:59
Speaker 1: here Tory for three thousand three dollars in goods. And
35:05
Speaker 1: if that if that sounds like a paltry amount, you're right.
35:08
Speaker 1: But even at the time it was like the Salk
35:12
Speaker 1: and the Fox would have considered it paltry because I
35:14
Speaker 1: read that they made something like sixty thousand dollars a
35:17
Speaker 1: season just from selling furs alone. So this was an
35:20
Speaker 1: insulting amount of money. Supposedly, William Henry Harrison was like
35:25
Speaker 1: particularly adept at creating these treaties, and this was the
35:29
Speaker 1: first one, and uh, they ended up basically negotiating with
35:34
Speaker 1: this this contingency of this contingent of um Sac and
35:38
Speaker 1: Fox leaders, but also not people who were recognized in
35:43
Speaker 1: those tribes as having the authority to sign away their land.
35:46
Speaker 1: But they signed something. William Henry Harrison said, good enough,
35:50
Speaker 1: this is legal. We now own that that land. Please
35:53
Speaker 1: get out. And this all this is one of those
35:56
Speaker 1: that um was brought up. Later in three there was
36:00
Speaker 1: a commission, federal commission that look back on this land
36:04
Speaker 1: deal and said, you know what it was worth about
36:07
Speaker 1: sixty cents an acre at the time. We purchased it
36:10
Speaker 1: for a half cent an acre. So here's what we're
36:12
Speaker 1: gonna do. We're gonna pay you back now here in
36:15
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies that fifty nine and a half cents. Uh,
36:19
Speaker 1: here's two million dollars. And they said, we'll wait a minute, though,
36:24
Speaker 1: this is this is nineteen seventy three. You're not including
36:27
Speaker 1: inflation or interest like you're you're paying us for what
36:31
Speaker 1: you owed us in eighteen o four using nineteen seventy
36:34
Speaker 1: three money. And excuse me, what, here's your check. Just
36:39
Speaker 1: go about your go about your day. And that's exactly
36:41
Speaker 1: what happened. And that was the first deal, the first
36:44
Speaker 1: treaty that was that was formed after the Louisiana purchase
36:48
Speaker 1: that affected land from Louisiana territory, right, and it just
36:53
Speaker 1: kind of went on from there. Some some tribes were
36:56
Speaker 1: giving money, some tribes were forced out for no money whatsoever.
37:00
Speaker 1: I think the black Feet famously lost twelve million acres
37:02
Speaker 1: and were given no money at all. Um And what's
37:08
Speaker 1: They weren't exactly like the indigenous tribes, weren't exactly treated
37:11
Speaker 1: like royalty by the French or the Spanish, but they
37:16
Speaker 1: weren't forced off of their land on mass um like
37:21
Speaker 1: they were once America owned the Louisiana territory, like it
37:26
Speaker 1: was a brand new a brand new show that they
37:29
Speaker 1: had not been prepared for. They they lived and worked
37:33
Speaker 1: and you know, follow their traditional ways among the French
37:36
Speaker 1: and the Spanish, who you know, made concessions to them
37:39
Speaker 1: and recognized a lot of their their um, their tribal
37:42
Speaker 1: territory and their tribal customs um. But they were they
37:46
Speaker 1: still considered the land belonging to France or belonging to Spain.
37:50
Speaker 1: But they weren't moved off. And then America came along
37:53
Speaker 1: and we're like, get out we've got a lot of
37:55
Speaker 1: people back east, and we are spreading westward. And essentially
37:58
Speaker 1: what they did was just continue to push and push
38:01
Speaker 1: and push the Native Americans all the way into the Pacific. Basically. Yeah,
38:06
Speaker 1: and you know, one of the things they would do
38:08
Speaker 1: is like they would clear out one tribe and the
38:12
Speaker 1: you know we call it the West, it was the
38:13
Speaker 1: Louisiana territory to make room to move like an East
38:18
Speaker 1: Coast tribe or a Southeastern tribe or a Northeastern tribe.
38:21
Speaker 1: Then they would move them into that land and say here,
38:23
Speaker 1: you can have this, but not for long because we're
38:26
Speaker 1: also going to remove you. And it was just like
38:29
Speaker 1: you said, it was just sort of shuffling these tribes
38:32
Speaker 1: one at a time further and further west, which you
38:36
Speaker 1: know obviously culminated in the Trail of tears Um, which
38:41
Speaker 1: we had a I think that was a two parter, right, Yeah,
38:44
Speaker 1: that was one of one of the best Um two
38:47
Speaker 1: parters we've done. I think it rivaled Evil Kinneval. Even
38:51
Speaker 1: Mark Ruffalo tweeted out about that episode. I forgot Hulk himself.
38:57
Speaker 1: That's right, he did Hulk himself, Polk himself. So it
39:01
Speaker 1: was it was just sort of the beginning of uh,
39:05
Speaker 1: beginning of a new day for Indigenous Americans, h no more,
39:08
Speaker 1: you know, basically sort of living with Europeans and kind
39:12
Speaker 1: of sharing the land. It was like, now this is ours,
39:14
Speaker 1: and and we're removing you, you know, permanently. Yeah, And
39:18
Speaker 1: I mean, just like that papal decree of the Doctrine
39:23
Speaker 1: of Discovery, America kind of formulated its own stuff, like
39:26
Speaker 1: the manifest Destiny, which essentially said, like we were we
39:31
Speaker 1: were given this land to take it over from coast
39:33
Speaker 1: to coast. This is America was meant to do this,
39:37
Speaker 1: to become this continental nation and become a superpower. And
39:42
Speaker 1: that was used as a reason like just we were
39:44
Speaker 1: supposed to do it. We were, we were destined to
39:46
Speaker 1: do this, so let's just keep doing it. And another
39:49
Speaker 1: one that was used is that the Native Americans weren't
39:52
Speaker 1: weren't using the land, they weren't putting it to use,
39:54
Speaker 1: So we're going to put it to more productive use
39:56
Speaker 1: and make money off of it, which if so facto,
39:58
Speaker 1: means we should have it. So these were kind of
40:01
Speaker 1: like the rationals for pushing further and further west, and
40:05
Speaker 1: we did it with such gusto Chalk that the Louisiana
40:09
Speaker 1: purchase was signed in eighteen oh three. Fifty years later,
40:14
Speaker 1: the Gadsden Purchase purchased southern Arizona in southwest New Mexico
40:20
Speaker 1: from Mexico. I believe, and at that moment, fifty years
40:24
Speaker 1: after Louisiana purchased double the size the contiguous forty eight
40:28
Speaker 1: states as they are today was set. Fifty years is
40:31
Speaker 1: all it took for us to take over the entire
40:34
Speaker 1: North American continent aside from Canada and Mexico. Wow, that
40:39
Speaker 1: puts it into perspective. We were vigorous, I should say so.
40:43
Speaker 1: Like you mentioned earlier, Lewis and Clark were then sent
40:46
Speaker 1: out because we didn't really know even what we had
40:49
Speaker 1: as far like the borders were very hazy. Uh. They
40:53
Speaker 1: were hazy when Spain had it. They were hazy when
40:55
Speaker 1: France had it. They knew the northern and southern borders
40:58
Speaker 1: because you had the Gulf of Mexico and you had
41:02
Speaker 1: the you know, Canada and the northern territories. But as
41:05
Speaker 1: far as west goes, they're like, I don't know. And
41:08
Speaker 1: everyone would look at each other, they would look at
41:10
Speaker 1: mat makers and they would all shrug and go I
41:12
Speaker 1: don't know so. Uh. In fact, in the purchase it said, uh,
41:17
Speaker 1: they refer to the land the colony or province of Louisiana,
41:19
Speaker 1: with the same extent it now has in the hands
41:22
Speaker 1: of Spain and then it had when France possessed it.
41:25
Speaker 1: In France and Spain both shrugged. So they sent Lewis
41:29
Speaker 1: and Clark out, and Jefferson said, Hey, when it comes
41:32
Speaker 1: to that western border, just go nuts. Um. You don't
41:36
Speaker 1: don't feel like you got to really be too restrictive
41:39
Speaker 1: on where that on where this Louisiana territory ends. And
41:42
Speaker 1: so they said, how about the Rocky Mountains and they said, great,
41:45
Speaker 1: that's they sound lovely perfect. Right. In America's tactic strategy,
41:50
Speaker 1: national strategy, you could say, it was just to keep
41:52
Speaker 1: pushing westward, right, so when you reached America's border, just
41:56
Speaker 1: keep going. And we would show up in mass and
41:59
Speaker 1: these British, like the British apparently controlled Oregon Territory, which
42:03
Speaker 1: I didn't realize, but it explains Washington and British Columbia's names. Um,
42:08
Speaker 1: and we would just show up along the Oregon Trail,
42:10
Speaker 1: and enough of us would show up that the Brits
42:12
Speaker 1: would finally be like, fine, forget it here, just take this.
42:15
Speaker 1: We want British Columbia. You take Washington and Oregon. And
42:18
Speaker 1: we did that in Texas. And that's how we just
42:21
Speaker 1: kept acquiring more and more land, just just by virtue
42:24
Speaker 1: of showing up in numbers and being willing to shed blood,
42:29
Speaker 1: pay money, um, and do you know all sorts of
42:33
Speaker 1: stuff to acquire that land. That's right, yeah, And I
42:38
Speaker 1: mean there's it's not like this is all just a
42:40
Speaker 1: nothing but a negative story. I mean, depending on your perspective. Yeah,
42:46
Speaker 1: it's pretty negative in a lot of ways. But also,
42:49
Speaker 1: I mean it's not like America is just like the
42:51
Speaker 1: worst country that ever existed. Like America has done a
42:53
Speaker 1: lot of really great stuff for the world, spread democracy,
42:56
Speaker 1: spread peace, done a lot of shady stuff too. I
42:59
Speaker 1: think everybody who has ever listening to the podcast knows
43:01
Speaker 1: that I am aware of that. But it's also done
43:04
Speaker 1: a lot of really cool stuff for the world. So
43:06
Speaker 1: in one sense, the Louisiana purchase helped kickstart that country
43:11
Speaker 1: that would go on to do some really cool, important things. Unfortunately,
43:16
Speaker 1: on the other hand, it gave us the Midwest. Oh Man,
43:21
Speaker 1: I had a feeling that was building towards a joke,
43:23
Speaker 1: a punchline. I meant everything, get Bay off. Okay, so
43:29
Speaker 1: you got anything else about the Louisiana purchase. No, I
43:32
Speaker 1: think I'm well armed for Jeopardy though. Okay I am too.
43:36
Speaker 1: Let's get it on. As Alex Trebek used to say, uh,
43:40
Speaker 1: if you want to know more about the Louisiana purchase,
43:42
Speaker 1: you can search that on um well on your favorite
43:45
Speaker 1: search bar. But also, I'm sure How Stuff Works has
43:48
Speaker 1: some good stuff on it, so why not start there?
43:50
Speaker 1: And since I said how Stuff Works and it's two
43:52
Speaker 1: thousand and ten again, it's time for listener mail. I'm
43:57
Speaker 1: gonna call this support for you. Okay, thank you for
44:01
Speaker 1: the whole songs. Sarah Tobacco when I in retrospect was
44:06
Speaker 1: a little unfair When I was like, what you never knew? Stand?
44:12
Speaker 1: Sarah meant no, Sarah's I didn't take it that way
44:15
Speaker 1: at all. But I know how you feel right now
44:17
Speaker 1: because I just cueate our How Vampires Works Episode Worked
44:21
Speaker 1: episode from back then. Yes, and you said you didn't
44:24
Speaker 1: like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, And I was like, what,
44:28
Speaker 1: all right, here we go. I just listened to the
44:29
Speaker 1: life of played episode guys, it felt like I had
44:31
Speaker 1: to back up Josh in regards to do Sarah and Sarah.
44:35
Speaker 1: I'm an architect and endured many grueling years of architectural school,
44:38
Speaker 1: during which we primarily prepare graphic and architecture role presentations
44:43
Speaker 1: in lieu of exams and paper so so you can
44:45
Speaker 1: imagine the aesthetic mind of a young architect can get
44:47
Speaker 1: obsessed with selecting the perfect font to align with the
44:50
Speaker 1: architectural concept they're about to present. I wasted many hours
44:54
Speaker 1: selecting the perfect font, and as did most other students
44:58
Speaker 1: in my class. I mean now my thirties and have
45:00
Speaker 1: been practicing for over twelve years, and made no connection
45:04
Speaker 1: to the twelve years. Would you hire twenty four year
45:06
Speaker 1: old architect? Mm hmmm. I don't know if if he
45:12
Speaker 1: was okay, coacious and went he or she, you know,
45:15
Speaker 1: started started attending Harvard at fifteen. May look at me.
45:18
Speaker 1: I'm being agents. Uh now mid thirties, have been practicing
45:22
Speaker 1: for twelve years. Made no connection to the meaning of
45:25
Speaker 1: Sarah until two or three years ago. Like Josh, I
45:28
Speaker 1: was well aware of the idea of songs, but never
45:30
Speaker 1: put the two and two together. You could take everything,
45:34
Speaker 1: Josh stated word for word and apply it to me.
45:37
Speaker 1: You guys make me laugh a lot, but this is
45:39
Speaker 1: one of the better chuckles I've had while listening to
45:41
Speaker 1: Josh go on about San Saraf, his San Sarah revelation
45:45
Speaker 1: and the likeness to my own Unlike Josh, though I
45:49
Speaker 1: never admitted it, allowed uh, and I felt it was
45:51
Speaker 1: about time to Josh. Thanks for sharing and letting me
45:53
Speaker 1: know that I'm not alone. Kind regards from Tim. Tim,
45:58
Speaker 1: thank you for that support. That is very nice of you,
46:00
Speaker 1: and I feel like I'm I'm the midwife of helping
46:05
Speaker 1: you birth your own um admission, it just got weird
46:09
Speaker 1: for sure, as Bob new Heart would put in, yeah, um.
46:14
Speaker 1: Thanks again, Tim, and if you want to be like Tim,
46:17
Speaker 1: you can send an email to stuff podcast at iHeart
46:21
Speaker 1: radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production
46:28
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
46:31
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
46:34
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.