Louisiana Territory | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and …
In 1812 the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana, and the Territory of Louisiana was renamed the Territory of Missouri. During its seven-year existence the Territory of Louisiana's southern border was the unclear boundary of the Louisiana Purchase.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Jan 15, 2010 · A bona fide territory of the United States, Oklahoma Territory would be eligible for statehood if its population grew large enough and if its leaders followed the process prescribed by federal law. The Oklahoma Territory Organic Act even more closely defined Indian Territory, reducing it to slightly more than the eastern half of the present state.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
The Red River boundary controversy started when the United States purchased the Territory of Louisiana from France in 1803 during Pres. Thomas Jefferson's administration. Spain and the United States feuded over the exact boundary between Louisiana and New Spain.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
The Territory of Louisiana included what is now Oklahoma and had its administrative center at St. Louis. In 1812 northern Louisiana became the Territory of Missouri; in 1819 southern Louisiana, including Oklahoma, was organized as the Territory of Arkansas.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
By the terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty negotiated a few months later, the Louisiana Purchase was defined on the west by a line running along the 100th Meridian from the Red River north to the Arkansas River. Thus, Arkansas Territory technically included much of present Oklahoma.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Jan 15, 2010 · Despite Spanish efforts to gain trading supremacy, France under Napoleon regained Louisiana by the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1800). However, in 1803 a desperate Napoleon, beset by military and monetary problems in Europe and the Caribbean, sold Louisiana Territory to the fledgling United States.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
It took almost two months to negotiate the Great Bend of the Red River in present Louisiana and Arkansas. The party did establish friendly relations with the Caddo and Alabama-Quassarte (Coushatta) villages on the river, and Freeman and Custis recorded valuable information about the peoples and ecology of the watercourse.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Jan 15, 2010 · They may have been the first to completely cross present Oklahoma. In 1741–42, accompanied by André Fabry de la Bruyère, they tried to repeat their journey and returned westward via the Arkansas and Canadian.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Jan 15, 2010 · Many scholars assume that there were also secret instructions given by Wilkinson to Pike as well as ordering him to carefully reconnoiter the strength of the Spanish presence along the borderlands of the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, of which present Oklahoma was a part, and in northern New Mexico.
The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture
Jan 15, 2010 · The vast area that contained present Oklahoma technically remained French Louisiana from 1682 to 1763. The "border" between the two New World empires was unsurveyed and vaguely defined.