Fiche de révision : Louisiana Purchase et ses conséquences

📋 Plan du Cours

1. L’ampleur de l’achat de la Louisiane
2. Territoire et populations autochtones
3. Esclavage et guerre de Sécession
4. Les raisons de l’hostilité envers Lincoln

📅 Repères chronologiques

1. 1863Lincoln declared emancipation, freeing enslaved people in the South.
2. 1865The emancipation proclamation was ratified.
3. 1865Lincoln was assassinated a few days after General Lee, leader of the Confederate Army, surrendered.

📖 1. L’ampleur de l’achat de la Louisiane

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• The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States, extending its western border to the Rocky Mountains and its northern border to Canada.

• The acquisition cost approximately $15 million, or about 3 cents per acre; one acre equals 4,046 square metres.

• The purchase gave the United States control of both banks of the Mississippi River and of New Orleans, the port city connecting the river to the Gulf of Mexico.

Compléments

• The United States acquired approximately 828,000 square miles of land, with one mile equal to 1.6 kilometres.

• Thirteen states were later carved out of the acquired territory, either wholly or partly.

📖 2. Territoire et populations autochtones

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• Between 50,000 and 100,000 people lived in the new territory, including mostly French-speaking white settlers, Native Americans, and enslaved or free African Americans.

• The United States developed a policy of forcible removal that deprived Native Americans of their territories and forced them to leave their native lands.

Compléments

• The Native population included tribes such as :

  • the Apaches
  • the Iroquois
  • the Sioux

• The purchase raised the question of whether settlers in the new territory would be regarded as American citizens.

• By the 1840s, the US Army and various Native tribes on the plains were in a constant state of war, with many wars breaking out.

📖 3. Esclavage et guerre de Sécession

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📌 The North opposed extending slavery, whereas the South supported the system, and both feared that new states would shift political power toward their opponents.

• The Civil War opposed the Southern States to the Northern States between 1861 and 1865.

• Immediately after Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States in 1860, 11 Southern States seceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States, also called the Confederacy.

Compléments

• The Southern States criticized Lincoln for supporting the abolition of slavery.

• Lincoln was re-elected for a second term in 1864.

📖 4. Les raisons de l’hostilité envers Lincoln

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• Southerners feared that emancipation would cause an economic crisis because formerly enslaved people would no longer work for free and would have to receive wages.

• Southerners feared a redefinition of states’ rights and fought to preserve their autonomy, power, institutions, and survival; slavery was the economic backbone of the South.

Compléments

• Southern farmers feared that plantations would go bankrupt and that farmers would be ruined and lose their privileges if they had to pay workers.

• Southern crops such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane required a large workforce, which farmers said they could not afford to pay.

• Fear of enslaved people and cultural clashes also contributed to Southern hatred of Lincoln.

• Lincoln wanted to implement policies involving tariffs and centralized federal powers.