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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out well? With the name your price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help you find options within your budget. Try it today@progressive.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law not available in all states. It is 22 January 1804. A dark evening in the middle of winter, but in the city of New Orleans on the southern coast of the United States, the weather is still mild. A small carriage drawn by a pair of shabby horses pulls up outside the city's public ballroom. A young man in a dark evening coat and white cravat jumps out and drops a few coins into the driver's outstretched hand. George Morgan is one of a growing number of Anglo Americans who have moved into the territory of Louisiana, which has only just been handed over by the French. But the inhabitants of New Orleans are still largely of French descent and their culture and customs define the city. George hurries up the short flight of steps to the red brick building and pushes open the heavy door. The large, high ceilinged ballroom is already packed. In the middle, 12 couples are twirling their way through a traditional English dance, ably accompanied by the musicians. George watches, mesmerized at the way the ladies gowns reflect the lamplight as they spin and swap partners. Many of the men are American military officers, their coats gleaming with braid and brass buttons. The ball, George finds, is a cosmopolitan affair. Moving through the room, he hears conversations in English from the Americans, French from the Louisianians, a smattering of Spanish. But the groups are not mixing. As he passes a knot of French military officers standing in a corner, muttering darkly, he realizes that something of a bad atmosphere is brewing. The music comes to an end with a flourish from the violinist and the crowd applauds. Sets of four begin to form for another English dance and George steps forward, hoping to join in. But alongside the quartets, forming pairs are also standing as if for a French waltz. A murmur of confusion runs through the crowd. Things quickly escalate. Several of the American soldiers begin haranguing the musicians, demanding they play another English country reel while the French shout for a waltz. The crowd only falls silent when the governor, 28 year old William Claiborne, climbs onto a bench and shouts for order. Since they have just had an English dance, he says. It is time now for a waltz. His tone brooks no disagreement. The French dancers look pleased, and George reluctantly steps back from the dance floor as the first strains of the music start up. But the dance has barely begun when an American advances on the lead violinist, demanding a halt to this French music. To the shock of those assembled, he then proceeds to beat the musician with his cane. Soon the violin is in splinters, and when the cane itself breaks, the slim sword inside it is revealed. Immediately more weapons are drawn, with American soldiers now facing off against the group of French military officers. As Claiborne throws himself between the two sides, George presses himself against the wall to avoid being pulled into the melee as the ball descends into a brawl. Though the city is newly American in name, it is clear that national divisions and resentments inherited from Europe still reign in New Orleans. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson negotiated the purchase of 820,000 square miles of land from Napoleon. Known as the Louisiana Territory, it included the modern states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Colorado, among many others. At the stroke of a pen, the nation almost doubled in size. But the purchase of Louisiana was only the beginning. Immediately, the American government was forced to reckon with a series of difficult questions, not least about how to incorporate this enormous multi ethnic territory into the United States, and what to do about the indigenous population who had inhabited the territory for millennia. But why did Napoleon agree to sell Louisiana in the first place? How did this territory and its inhabitants become part of the fledgling United States? And what impact do these monumental events have on the course of American history? Hi, I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is a short history of the Louisiana Purchase. From the late 15th century, European explorers have been making claims on North America, but the vast swathe of land that will become known as the Louisiana Territory remains untouched by them until 1682, when a Frenchman named Rene Robert Cavalier reaches the mouth of the Mississippi River. He claims the waterway and the land around it in the name of King Louis xiv, hence the name Louisiana. Over time, the name comes to refer to a vast region stretching roughly from the Mississippi river westward toward the unexplored plains and mountains, and from the Great Lakes in the north down to the Gulf of Mexico. Peter Castor is professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis and author of a number of books on the Louisiana Purchase.