Why did Napoleon sell the Louisiana territory to the U.S.?

Answer 1

To get money to fund its wars with Britain - APEX

Answer 2

Answer 1

France was preparing for war with Britain and needed money to pay for it.

He needed cash to continue his war in Europe.

Note on the Sale

Napoleon did not actually 'sell' the Louisiana territory; in all actuality he sold New Orleans and its related areas and his [France's] treaty rights for the area they claimed; the US Still had to enter into treaties for those lands from its current inhabitants.

Answer 2

He made the sale because France was going bankrupt (again) from yet another war with England.

Answer 3

Reason #1: Napoléon needed money for military supplies.

Reason #2: He hoped that a larger Unites States would challenge British power.

Answer 4

The two reasons Napoleon sold Louisiana was, he need money to fund his war in Europe and he no longer needed that territory.

Answer 5

Cash and Spite:There were essentially only two reasons for the Louisiana Purchase:

1. Napoleon needed cash to continue his war in Europe. French lands in the New World had no value to Napoleon if the Nation did not maintain national status in Europe where it called itself the French Empire. The slave revolt in San Domingo had sapped France's resources and it was still trying to recover from the effects of the French Revolution and the Great Terror. Louisiana had little value without the Haitian slave population to make it profitable.
2. The United Kingdom had claims in the Pacific Northwest as did Russia and Spain. Napoleon could tweak his nose at his great UK enemy who had not yet accepted the loss of the American Colonies and anything that he could do to upset England made him a happy man.

Answer 6

The French were in debt from the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, and saw it as an opportunity to compensate for some of their losses. President Jefferson thought that it was not in his power to buy the territory since that authority was not stated in the Constitution, but could not pass it up because he did not want the French to have the ability to block the U.S. access to the port of New Orleans.

He needed cash. The loss of Haiti to a slave revolt had soured him on a new world Empire. The sale would upset the UK, and that pleased him greatly.

Answer 7

After a costly war of independence fought by France in Haiti that had cost them close to 60,000 soldiers due to disease and arms and a lot of money, Napoleon was seeking to gain cash to enable his European wars. James Monroe, who was sent to French with a mere offer to buy New Orleans came back with a flat fee of $15 million for the entire Louisiana territory, a huge territorial boost for the United States.

Answer 8

The slave revolt in Haiti, the UK would be upset by it and he needed the cash to continue the European War.

Answer 9

The sale provided him with funds to continue his European War, secondly it gave Napoleon great personal satisfaction that with the US in control of a large piece of the Pacific Northwest, all of the Mississippi River and the vital Port of New Orleans his arch enemy, England, would be frustrated in its New World plans. (The UK was not only frustrated, it was livid, infuriated and disconcerted, as only the Kingdom can be be while keeping a stiff upper lip.)

Answer 3

He needed money to pay for a war in Britain.

Answer 4

For money to pursue his wars in Europe