210 Years Ago

Lewis and Clark began their expedition up the Missouri river and to the Pacific ocean.

Emperor Napoleon was very happy to sell the Louisiana territory to the Americans. He likely knew that France had no ability to defend the territory. Better to get 60 million francs for it, rather than lose it by conquest.

The funny thing is that the bonds for the purchase were underwritten, in part, by a London bank and Napoleon used the money to build up French military forces for war with England. (Then, as now, banksters were little more than amoral sociopaths.)

The good thing is that the French and the British had been enemies for centuries. If they hadn't been and if France had sold the Territory to the British, America today would likely be a much smaller and far less influential nation and Canada would have been a world power, eh?