About the Author

Hi, my name is Lisa and I am currently a student in my third and final year of an Arts degree at Sydney University. I'm doing a double major in English and History which ties in nicely with my interests in literature and modern history, particularly European history. This web site is part of my first real foray into American history so I hope that you will take that into consideration when viewing it!

When I was building this web site, I was trying to open up ways of looking at the primary source material, which, in this case, is the Treaty of the Louisiana Purchase, particularly the Third Convention. I decided that in order to understand what the Treaty was about, it was necessary to include some contextual materials that would aid in making sense of all the nuances that the Treaty offered.

I went into this assignment with no prior knowledge about the Louisiana Purchase so I personally had to research the topic and gradually I managed to form my own views about some of the issues involved. These included such issues as the role that colonial and international relations shaped the events that occurred up to and including the Louisiana Purchase; what role individuals played in the transactions that occurred; why Louisiana was deemed to be such an important piece of land to so many nations; and how the ways in which the actual Treaty itself was structured (in its language) reflected the situation in which the Treaty was negotiated.

By writing some very minimal explanations and giving you access to other notes and related primary sources, I hope that this will enable you to form your own understandings of the Louisiana Purchase and maybe even raise a few questions which will encourage you to go and find out more! Remember, history is more than dates and facts. History is about taking all the available evidence you can find and making your own evaluations of it to find your own historical truth.

In this quest, I wish you good luck.

Regards,

Lisa