>1803: The US obtains 2,140,000 sq. km of land in the Louisiana purchase for a price equivalent to $250 million in today's money.
>1867: The US obtains 1,518,000 sq. km of land in the Alaska purchase for the equivalent of $125 million in today's money.
Why did everybody agree to sell America tons of land for basically nothing? It's like the entire country was founded on Easy mode.
Napoleon was a dumb brainlet and Alaska costed a big % of the US GDP while it was mostly wasteland at the time
Because
1) the land was empty
2) the owners could not defend it
Mostly number 2. If you have land without the resources to defend it, it becomes a liability in times of war instead of a strength, so you're in your best interest to sell it off when you can instead of inevitability losing it.
We literally made Trump-ian deals. We figured out when our neighbors were broke and offered to buy seemingly useless real estate from them.
Who could have stolen Alaska. Besides the US was a countrylet when they bought Louisiana. It could have done jack shit against any European country
Napoleon had just take Lousiana from Spain in a secret treaty (whose did not really fulfill, btw) and once he lost his fleet he could not realistically protect it. So he was quick enough to sell "his" claims over a bunch of clay for some much needed cash.
Thanks Napoleon :)
>Who could have stolen Alaska
Great Britain. Russia and the UK were on poor terms at the time, and if they went to war Alaska would be inevitably lost and be annexed into Canada.
So he can send a whole army to Haiti but he couldn't protect Louisiana against a countrylet like the US? Napoleon was a brainlet. He was extremelly dumb outside of tactics and he made a fool of himself everytime he spoke French with an Italian accent and tones of gramatical errors or when his baby tier grammar that he used for his books and letters. An ugly brainlet and a manlet.
not really. Jefferson didn't want to buy the entire louisiana purchase, just the mouth of the missippi roughly corrosponding to the state of louisiana. Napoleon however wasn't willing to sell a piece
Right, but he (Jefferson) jumped on the opportunity and even ignored congress.
maybe in a conventional fight but American French territory wasn't exactly a conventional walk in the park, it was largely unpopulated and would require dealing with both American Indian tribes AND the US AND spain. Guerilla tactics are very effective on a vast Frontier, would have been like the spanish ulcer times 500. France couldn't hold that shit, they saw that even britain with its gigantic navy couldn't project power over the atlantic effectively and so they sold while they still could. Spain should have done the same but instead their shit fell apart before they could sell it.
>So he can send a whole army to Haiti but he couldn't protect Louisiana against a countrylet like the US?
and great britian. should he have tried to take control of louisiana he would have the royal navy and the US navy blocking him. also, geopolitically this isn't a time when he would have wanted to put neutral US on the same side of a dispute as great britain and potentially turn them into a quasi-ally of his enemy
And that was all it took to be emperor.
What's your excuse?
>Great Britain. Russia and the UK were on poor terms at the time, and if they went to war Alaska would be inevitably lost and be annexed into Canada.
>Great Britain
>Doing jackshit against Russia
Kek.They got humilliated in Crimea and had to be bailed out by France for a reason.Also that would just push the American-Russian alliance which would have crushed the UK in America and probably ending the existance of Canada
pacifying an island is a much more simple task than pacifying 2 million square miles of uninhabited frontier.
Stop being stupid. Furthermore the haitian invasion failed, so what's your point? They couldn't project power over an island, much less the American frontier.
Napoleon sold Louisiana for cash.Jefferson wouldn't have entered a war against France and the army that he sent to Haiti could have raised Virginia to the ground with ease.The US was a countrylet.Even Denmark would be a bigger threat
>pacifying an island is a much more simple task than pacifying 2 million square miles of uninhabited frontier.
A revolt is not a former war.With gorilla tactics and diplomacy the whole region could have been secured.And if Brainletpoleon didn't chimpout he would have all of New Spain backing him in the war.Napoleon was a huge brainlet specially in diplomatic matters
fuck you're dumb. How the hell is a 10,000 man French army going to a)land in America past the british fleet b)supply that army whilst britain does everything in its power to stop you and c)perform a counterinsurgency operation dealing with the same problems britain had only this time on a much larger stretch of land and with no naval support due to the british. A French army in Louisiana would be like a Carthaginian army in italy. You might make some noise but ultimately there's no way you're gonna accomplish anything because they're not gonna let your destroy their forces outright, they'll ambush and hit and run for years until you give up, and there's too much land to hold everything, you either split up and can't do anything or stay together and have your enemy run circles around you.
You're an idiot, europeans stopped trying in the Americas because they realized it was impossible to project power effectively over the ocean, that's the whole reason the US gained independence on the first place, because we were more trouble than we were worth.
>gorilla tactics
kek, stop embarrassing yourself you don't know what you're talking about
user, he's baiting. Just stop.
Russia couldn't even project it's power to the east of itself against Japan 40 years later, it would certainly struggle to hold on to Alaska and handily lose the naval conflict
>a)land in America past the british fleet
Like he did in Haiti brainlet.Naval interception is harder than in total war or EUIV.Brainlet.
>supply that army whilst britain does everything in its power to stop you
Louisiana had supplies of its own and tons of farmland.Brainlet.
>A French army in Louisiana would be like a Carthaginian army in italy
The US army was tiny as hell.2000 Frenchmen could have conquered most US states.Brainlet
>You're an idiot, europeans stopped trying in the Americas because they realized it was impossible to project power effectively over the ocean, that's the whole reason the US gained independence on the first place, because we were more trouble than we were worth.
The US would have lost without French and Spanish support.Brainlet.Stop being a brainlet.Brainlet.
let's all agree to ignore this retard that things he knows better than Napoleon.
If only history's greatest upsets had this man as their leader, none of it would have ever happened how it did. This man in the right place in the right time could have solved everything.
I'd like to know your strategy for conquering the entire United States with 2000 men, everyone has been doing it wrong for thousands of years, this guy knows what's up.
>Napoleon was a huge brainlet specially in diplomatic matters
oh Veeky Forums
>distant, costly to maintain and hard to develop land sold for peanuts in times of war to improve cashflow
>land strongly in danger of acquisition by strong rival get sold to weak neutral instead
Sure, the US got lucky as all fucks, but those were hardly bad deals for France and Russia, given the situation.
>not taking land for whatever aggressive expansion and warscore you have to spare and selling it to the highest bidder
What is wrong with you?
>Napoleon cucks Spain out of Louisiana
>Spain can have Tuscany or something else in Italy
>Americans arrive with what they think is the audacious offer to buy New Orleans
>Napoleon offers double the American offer for the whole territory
He must have really liked Jefferson.
Jefferson didn't like a strong president but was one himeslf.
Someone needed to fight the pirates.
Speaking politically he probably would have just gave it away to the US if spain or the UK tried to get their hands on it.
>offer to buy New Orleans
>aka offer to make inland louisiana completely worthless and unreachable by France
I find it really hard to believe that the americans really only had the acquisition of the city in mind.