What if: France had not sold the Louisiana territories to the U.S.?

[Dis]

Or what if Spain had rettained control (not losing it to France) and never sold it to the U.S.?

I'd imagine the U.S. would have went to war with for it eventually. But imagine if France allied with England. The U.S. wouldn't have a chance. Yes I know with Napolean around, that wasn't likely. As they had their own wars to contend with.

We can also discuss the legality of the purchase and whether the president had any authority to send diplomats over there to purchase New Orleans (which later turned out to purchase the entire territory)

but imagine if France had held it for 50 or 100 years. What would the united states have been like? Would there be 2 or 3 countries in the U.S. today? It's a good bet that the spanish would have kept their territories if France had managed to keep theirs. They would eventually gain independence I would think. And we'd have 3 countries instead of one. Would these countries have any power? could they have done anything in ww2 to help at all?

[Ecthy]

No chance for France to hold the territory in the long run if the US want it.

[Ecthy]

Re: What if: France had not sold the Louisiana territories to the U.S.?

Originally posted by Dis
I'd imagine the U.S. would have went to war with for it eventually. But imagine if France allied with England. The U.S. wouldn't have a chance. Yes I know with Napolean around, that wasn't likely. As they had their own wars to contend with.

Why should France be allied with England at any point through the 19th century, especially over a matter like this?

But imagine if France had held it for 50 or 100 years. What would the united states have been like? Would there be 2 or 3 countries in the U.S. today? It's a good bet that the spanish would have kept their territories if France had managed to keep theirs. They would eventually gain independence I would think. And we'd have 3 countries instead of one. Would these countries have any power? could they have done anything in ww2 to help at all?

I'm not sure about the population density of those territories at the time, but I'd think they'd be rather low compared to the United States. Therefore, with the two doctrines, they'd be taken at one point or another. If Spain couldn't hold her position in real life she won't in that scenario.

[BeBMan]

What if there were no what-if-threads anymore

[Ecthy]

What ifs are often stupid. This is alright, it assumes another possible rational decision by France. But it really wouldn't helped them much.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Ecthy
What ifs are often stupid. This is alright, it assumes another possible rational decision by France. But it really wouldn't helped them much.

I disagree with this post.

[Ecthy]

Un-possible!

[aneeshm]

The USA would have invaded it under the pretext of securing WMDs that the French have .

[Ecthy]

Maybe China should invade India under the pretext that their teenagers are a bit silly.

[chequita guevara]

We would have taken it from them by force eventually.

[aneeshm]

@ Ecthy

Maybe you need to get a sense of humour ?

[Ecthy]

Maybe you should

[Joseph]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
We would have taken it from them by force eventually.

We would have taken it by moving in and taking it over or used force as required to keep it.

Texas anyone.

[LDiCesare]

The French king had secretly sold Louisiana to Spain but then there was a revolution. So France would certainly had sold the territories to Spain if not to the U.S. The French never bothered much about their colonies. Just look at how many people settled Louisiana or Quebec.

[Ecthy]

LD, they'd have taken it from Span in that case.