Napoleon Bonaparte<span> of France was engaged in wars on numerous fronts in Europe and was running short of money to fund his military campaigns. When Napoleon assessed options for gaining funds, he recognized that the United States had developed top-rated credit in world markets. He found an opportunity to offer the United States substantial French territory in North America for significant money in return.</span>
<span>At the time, the United States was concerned about France’s control of the mouth of the Mississippi and the possibility of disrupting the flow of future commerce of the United States. Thomas Jefferson, through his diplomatic team in Paris, had earlier proposed acquiring </span>New Orleans<span> and small tracts of land on both sides of the banks of the Mississippi from France for six million dollars.</span>
<span>In April 1803, Napoleon's Treasury Minister made an offer to U.S. diplomat </span>Robert R. Livingston<span> to forward on to the </span>U.S. President Thomas Jefferson<span>. This offer included a much bigger tract of land than the United States had asked for, which France had recently acquired in 1800 from Spain. The price also increased from six million dollars to 15 million dollars for this bigger territorial acquisition offer.</span>
Many New Mexico farmers had few or no crops to sell and eventually, they were forced to sell their land contributing in the process to the overall decline in farmland values. The Depression also hurt New Mexico's cattle ranchers, for they suffered from both drought and a shrinking marketplace.
