How did a shipwreck double the

size of the United States?

Fisherman Jerry Murphy and his crew snagged something unexpected while trawling the Gulf of Mexico one
afternoon in 1993. At first glance, the fishing net appeared weighted down with rock and debris. Upon closer
inspection, some of those rocks were actually
piles of silver coins, which had fused together
while underwater. Realizing that he may have
stumbled onto a deep sea treasure trove,
Murphy dialed up his lawyer to attain rights to
the booty, then contacted maritime history
experts to determine the source of the coins
[source: McConnaughey]. A year later,
researchers concluded that Murphy's
discovery -- which occurred, ironically, in a
boat named Mistake -- was the ruins of a
warship called El Cazador, or "The Hunter,"
that disappeared at sea in 1784.

El Cazador set out from Veracruz, Mexico,

loaded down with 19 tons (17 metric tons) of newly issued silver reales, or Spanish currency. King Carlos II
of Spain ordered the money to be transported from the mint in Mexico to New Orleans, the capital of Spain's
Louisiana colony. The king needed to pay his soldiers and government officials in charge of the city, but the
paper money circul ating in New Orleans had lost much of its value.

Not surprisingly, the city that lives by the

motto "laissez les bon temps rouler" (let
the good times roll) didn't always follow
the letter of the law during colonial times.
Situated in a relatively remote locale and
settled by a fascinating hodgepodge of
immigrants from France, Spain, Africa and
the West Indies, New Orleans quickly
developed its signature culture -- and a
dash of Cajun corruption. A rash
of counterfeiting and a shortage of hard
currency devalued the cash in circulation,
and left the Spanish government
scrambling to compensate its employees.
(PHOTO: LIFE Magazine. M. Moshe Malamud, Chairman of The Franklin Mint, holds an 8 Reales Silver
coin from The Franklin Mint's collection of treasure recovered from the sunken spanish ship 'El Cazador' in
a vault at The Franklin Mint offices on March 9, 2007 in Hicksville, New York.)

On Jan. 11, 1784, El Cazador left Mexican shores, headed for the bayou. In June, the ship was declared
missing, lost in murky depths for nearly 210 years. The more than 400,000 silver reales on board wasn't
exactly pocket change for the Spanish government. That unlikely shipwreck gave King Carlos pause about
whether the Louisiana Territory that Spain won from the French 20 years earlier was a worthwhile
investment.

The Founding of New Orleans

King Carlos II of Spain was cousin to King Louis XV of France through the Bourbon bloodline. In 1762, Louis
ceded the Louisiana Territory to Carlos with the Treaty of Fontainebleau. The land grant wasn't motivated
by fond familial regard; Louis sought keep his
precious Louisiana Territory out of British hands.
The French had lost the Seven Years' War to the
British, and King Louis foresaw the upcoming
repercussions. The next year, Britain and France
signed theTreaty of Paris that ended the war
officially and gave the English all of Louisiana east of
the Mississippi River -- except for New Orleans.

In 1682, explorer Robert Cavelier de La

Salle discovered the mouth of the Mississippi near
present-day New Orleans and named the land
"Louisiana" in honor of King Louis XIV. De La Salle
failed to establish a lasting settlement, but Pierre LeMoyne Sieur d'Iberville arrived 17 years later and
started Fort Maurepas about 70 miles (112 kilometers) northeast of New Orleans. Hearing the news, King
Louis XV granted permission to start a French colony, and New Orleans became the capital city in 1718.

New Orleans' geography had its share of pros and cons. Hordes of mosquitoes attracted to the waterlogged
city's climate bred disease, including yellow fever and smallpox. Yet New Orleans was prime commercial real
estate. Farmers and traders could send their goods down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico via New
Orleans, then ship it anywhere in the world. Spain exploited its control over the port and levied expensive
tariffs for its use. But those export profits didn't insulate New
Orleans or the Spanish government from the loss of money
that sank with El Cazador. As more people settled in the
sprawling Territory, it became even more unwieldy -- and
costly -- for Spain to manage.

Around that time, France started eyeing its former territory

again. Napoleon took the French throne by coup in 1799,
and he looked to the West to expand his empire. On Oct. 1,
1800, Spain and France signed the secret Treaty of San
Ildefonso. With it, Napoleon cut a deal to give the King of
Spain's son-in-law the Tuscan throne in exchange for
returning the Louisiana Territory to French control. At the
same time, trouble was brewing in French-owned
Hispaniola that would indirectly alter the United States'
fortune forever.

The Haitian Revolution and Louisiana Purchase

Napoleon dream ed of creating a Western empire centered on international trade. The French Caribbean
islands and Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) could farm sugar, coffee and tropical produce.
With New Orleans as its trading stronghold in North America, Napoleon would wield economic power over
the United States [source: Lachance]. However, a slave uprising led by Toussaint L'Ouverture in Saint-
Domingue (the former name for Haiti) dashed those imperial plans.

The Real American Dollar

The first U.S. dollar was modeled off Spanish reales, the type of coins recovered in the El
Cazador wreckage. Although the U.S. mint was built in 1792, the government accepted reales
as legal tender until 1857 [source: U.S. Mint].

The only successful slave revolt in history, French forces couldn't quell the Haitian rebellion. Napoleon
dispatched 20,000 soldiers to restore peace and order, but a combination of yellow fever and unyielding
solidarity among the former slaves defeated the military's efforts. By late 1802, France had lost an estimated
55,000 men [source:Lachance]. Since Saint Domingue was France's most lucrative colony in the West,
Napoleon considered it a key asset for building his Caribbean empire [source: Rodriguez]. Cutting his losses,
Napoleon abandoned the Western strategy and decided to refill France's dwindling treasury for impending
war with Britain.

While Napoleon sorted out his imperial problems, another legendary

leader also contemplated expanding his nation's horizons. President
Thomas Jefferson viewed French control over the port at New
Orleans as a hindrance to American settlement in the West.
Jefferson didn't want to fight with France over the territory, instead
seeking a diplomatic solution. He sent James Monroe as his envoy to
the French government with an offer to buy New Orleans for no more
than $3 million.

Instead of haggling over the port city, Napoleon surprised Jefferson

by upping the ante. He put up the entire Louisiana Territory for sale --
no more, no less. The strict constructionist president was conflicted
at first with the offer since the Constitution didn't include allowances
for the federal government to accept land purchases. To get around
that, he framed the deal as a treaty between the United States and
France. The strategy worked, and Jefferson bought the enormous
swath of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky
Mountains for $15 million on April 30, 1803.

Priced at barely four cents per acres, the 828,000 square miles (2.1 million square kilometers) signed over in
Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase Treaty effectively doubled the size of the country. In less than three years,
Louisiana passed from Spain to France to the United States. Though it took an unlikely shipwreck, war and a
slave uprising to get there, Jefferson sealed the largest land deal in U.S. history with peaceful diplomacy and
a signature.

Sources
• "Coin of the Month." U.S. Mint. (Feb. 18, 2009)
http://www.usmint.gov/KIDS/coinNews/coinOfTheMonth/2003/02.cfm
• Feigenbaum, Gail. "A Particular Solution to Inevitable Expansion." American History. Vol.
38. Issue 3. August 2003.
• Lachance, Paul. "An Empire Gone Awry." Humanities. Vol. 23. Issue 6. November 2002.
• Lawson, Gary and Seidman, Guy. "The Constitution of Empire." Yale University Press.
2004. (Feb. 18, 2009)
• http://www.life.com/image/73600782
http://books.google.com/books?id=M_vwm-dG6r4C
• McConnaughey, Janet. "A Fishing Vessel Called Mistake Finds Sunken Spanish
Treasure by Accident." Los Angeles Times. Feb. 13, 1994.
• http://www.life.com/image/73600784
• McGill, Sarah Ann. "Louisiana Purchase." Great Neck Publishing. 2005.
• Rodriguez, Junius P. "The Louisiana Purchase." ABC-CLIO. 2002. (Feb. 18, 2009)
http://books.google.com/books?id=Qs7GAwwdzyQC
• "Sunken Spanish Brig Yields Mementos of the Past." The New York Times. Nov. 21,
1994. (Feb. 18, 2009)
• http://www.life.com/image/73600787
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E0DC1E31F932A15752C1A962958260
&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/S/Ships%20and%20Shipping
• Thibodeaux, Ron. "Growing a Nation." The Times-Picayune. Dec. 22, 2002.

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