Napoleon Bonaparte in Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was a French military officer who rose through the chaos of the French Revolution to become Emperor of France.
In the first two decades of the 19th century, Napoleon was the most powerful and fearsome individual in Europe, leading French armies to conquer much of the continent.
In the early years of his rule, Napoleon sent a large army to quell a slave revolt in the French Caribbean sugar colony of Saint-Domingue, which he hoped to rebuild into the centerpiece of a North American French empire. When the slaves defeated the French army, Napoleon abandoned his plans for American empire and sold his mainland territory—Louisiana—to the United States.