U.S. History to 1877

Here are a couple of clarifications of points I made in recent class meetings.

First, I was unable to provide a casualty figure for British soldiers in the Revolutionary War. After further investigation, I still do not have an answer because I found that no reliable estimates exist, in part because the count for some battles includes both those killed and wounded, and in part because the number who died from disease (always higher than those killed in action) was seldom recorded accurately.  That said, the number of battle deaths for both Americans and British ranged from single digits to hundreds in each battle.

Second, I wanted to clarify the manner in which Louisiana Territory changed hands prior to the Louisiana Purchase. In 1763, following the French and Indian War, the French ceded Louisiana to Spain to avoid having it added to the spoils of war France would be expected to pay to the British. By 1800, Napoleon Bonaparte had attained the title of First Consul, in effect becoming the most powerful man in France though he did not name himself Emperor until 1804. His ambitions included, as we noted in class, restoring French imperial power in the Americas, specifically the sugar island of Saint-Domingue (Haiti). Several months later, France concluded the Treaty of San Ildefonso with Spain (October 1, 1800), which was a reflection of Spain’s declining power in the world. In this treaty (kept a secret for about two years), France granted the duke of Parma control over a kingdom in Tuscany.  The duke of Parma happened to be the son-in-law of King Charles IV of Spain. In return, Spain ceded Louisiana back to France with the understanding that France would never transfer it to a third power (a promise France, of course, broke in 1803 by selling it to the United States). Spain was too weak by 1803 to stop France’s action. Meanwhile, Napoleon sent French troops to try to put down the Haitian Revolution in 1802. Within a year, this effort failed, making Napoleon see the futility of his dream of the revived French American empire and making Louisiana worth little to him.