In the Treaty of San Ildefonso, '1 October 1800, France secretly obtained the retrocession of Louisiana from Spain.' 1 For Spain, the retrocession was born out of necessity. The colony had been unfrutiful for Spain and even though she had been in possession of Louisiana from 1763, by 1800 'Less than 1 percent of its area was settled.' 2 Furthermore, E. E. Lyon notes that 'Although [Louisiana's] inhabitants were prosperous, the transfer to France freed the Spanish treasury of an annaul deficit of $337,000. As Charles IV viewed it, the cost of policing Spain's American frontier was now to be borne by the French. 3 These concerns with the colony's future prosperity and security manifested themselves in 1795 when Spain had offered Louisiana to France in return 'for the eastern half of Santo Domingo but France had refused.' 4 By 1800, Spain's position in Lousiana was becoming increasingly precarious. 'Anxious to keep America at arm's length from New Spain, Spain had also stipulated in the agreement at San Ildefonso that France not relinquish Louisiana to a third party.' 5 This fear seems to have been placated by Gouvion St Cyr, the French Ambassador to Madrid, who reassured Spanish officials by reporting that "I am authorised to decalre to you in the name of the First Consul [Napoleon] that France will never alienate it [Louisiana]." 6

  1. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, Volume 1, Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, New Haven 1956, 380.
  2. Ibid, 389.
  3. Elijah Wilson Lyon, Louisiana in French Diplomacy, 1759-1804, Universtiy of Oklahoma Press, Norman, USA, 1974, 109.
  4. David J. Weber, The Spanish Frontier in North America, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1992, 290.
  5. Ibid, 291.
  6. Lyon, 124.