WI: Louisiana Purchase included more territory?

JJohnson

Banned
Let's say Napoleon's eager to get rid of even more territory in the Americas, and the Americans coming to him to purchase New Orleans are a convenient excuse to offload some territory to finance his wars in Europe. Assuming the OTL Louisiana Purchase territory is a given, what else might he have decided to offload?

At the time they had:

St Pierre et Miquelon
Saint Martin (co-habited with the Dutch)
Haiti (though in slave revolt)
French Guiana
Guadeloupe
Iles des Saintes
Marie-Galante
la Desirade
Martinique
Clipperton Island
Dominica
Saint Lucia
Tobago
 
Let's say Napoleon's eager to get rid of even more territory in the Americas, and the Americans coming to him to purchase New Orleans are a convenient excuse to offload some territory to finance his wars in Europe. Assuming the OTL Louisiana Purchase territory is a given, what else might he have decided to offload?

At the time they had:

St Pierre et Miquelon
Saint Martin (co-habited with the Dutch)
Haiti (though in slave revolt)
French Guiana
Guadeloupe
Iles des Saintes
Marie-Galante
la Desirade
Martinique
Clipperton Island
Dominica
Saint Lucia
Tobago

you need the americans want to have it...originally all they planned to buy of napoleon was the city and a little bit around...the rest of the louisiana purchase was really by lucky chance...theres no reason why theyd want islands that far away from their boundries as well, as they, at the time, wouldnt have being able to reinforce and control them
 
Haiti would be a poisoned chalice with its slave revolt. Since the US does not have a large standing army at the time, they can't possibly hope to subdue it.

French Guiana is simply too far.

Clipperton Island is in the Pacific and way too far.

St Pierre et Miquelon is right off Newfoundland. Probably does not give any extra advantage to the US given its small size and that New England ships already fish in the North Atlantic. No reason to pay for it.

Saint Lucia, Maritinique, Dominica (although I think this belonged to Britain), Guadeloupe, Iles des Saintes, Marie-Galante, and la Desirade are all close to each other. The group occupies a nice and compact area, and collectively could make a state. They are too far in 1803 to be ideal, but are collectively attractive enough that buying them would be worthwhile. It would spur development of the US Navy (which is already engaged by Jefferson in the Barbary War), and give the US bases in the Caribbean. Although the slavery debate has not yet really begun to divide North and South, it would be the basis for a new state with similar interests to the South. A good argument could be made that they should be bought provided they are all together.

Since I think Dominica is actually British, and this fits right inbetween the two groups of islands, the package is less attractive. Perhaps an offer could eventually be made for it to the British, although I'd doubt they'd bite.

Tobago and St Martin are nearby those islands, but still separated by various islands held by Britain, and thus tougher to defend. Unless France was really unloading them at fire sale prices, I'd pass.
 
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