The United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France in 1803 (during Thomas Jefferson's third term as President), for 68 million francs – about 15 billion dollars in today's money. The territory stretched from New Orleans to the Canadian border; its total land area was around 828,000 square miles. By way of comparison, the area of Alaska is 663,000 square miles; the total land area of the USA today is about 3.8 million square miles.
The purchase price included 50 million francs in currency and the cancellation of debts to the value of 18 million.
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