The U.S. may well have gone to war against France if the talks that led to the Louisiana Purchase had broken down. Jefferson was extremely nervous about Napoleonic France controlling New Orleans, and Napoleon did for a time dream of rebuilding France's North American empire. But the army that was supposed to take possession in Louisiana got bogged down in Haiti and collapsed there, foiling his plans and convincing him to sell the territory instead. If not for the yellow fever epidemic in Haiti in 1803, things would probably have gone very differently.