United Muscovite Nations wrote:Sanctissima wrote:And what, throw away an amazing opportunity for his country because of petty humanitarian sentimentalities?
Had he done so, the US is unlikely to have expanded very far beyond its initial territory within the Thirteen Colonies. Nevermind that Britain would have been the likely candidate to gobble up the Mississippi Basin if the US never bothered with it, and the British weren't exactly well-known for their treatment of the natives either.
The United States was already larger than the Thirteen Colonies.
Yes and no.
There was considerable disagreement between the US and Britain as to exactly how much territory was ceded to the newly created country after its war of independence.
The US more or less considered itself to have been given this much territory (see in brown):
Whereas Britain decided it had ceded this much territory (see in dark red):
With some debate being had over the exact boundaries of Northern Massachusetts (later Maine) and other territories.
All in all though, at least de jure from the American perspective, they already owned all the territory east of Louisiana by the time the purchase was made, with Spanish Florida being the only notable exception.
Naturally part of the reasoning for the later War of 1812 would be over who exactly owned territory in the Midwest (especially the Great Lakes region), but that's really neither here nor there, since the US already considered itself to de jure own the land.