Eat some Cajun Food: The Louisiana Purchase is 200 years Old!
This year is the 200th anniversary of the largest land acquisition without bloodshed in the history of the world. Amid a barrage of political fire storms, the US bought land for about THREE cents per acre from a bankrupt France. The negociations too place mostly behind among US and French diplomats in France. Give and take on the price it seemed was forever on going.
The opposition to this cried it would bankrupt the country, the constitution didn't give authority to buy land and it would lead to war.
War with Britian since in effect we were negociating with an enemy of Britian and some thought this would end up bringing the European war to US soil. It did lead to Britian trying to take New Orleans but a great Amercian Andrew Jackson repelled them in a short and decisive battle: Thus the line in the song, "we fired our guns and the British kept a coming". It took 20 yrs to pay for the LP. It created the largest trade area in the country and opened up the US for western expansion.
A great book on it is: Jefferson's Great Gamble!