In 1803, the U.S. purchased Louisiana from Napoleon for $15,000,000. This immediately doubled the size of the United States, and included the land which would become the State of Nebraska.
Signing the deal for the U.S. are James Madison and Robert Livingston, and for France, Talleyrand and Barbe-Marbois, as a bust of Napoleon looks on. In the background is the map of the purchase.
More significantly it brought these territories into the U.S. and continued the practice of the Napoleonic Code in the states that would grow out of the purchase. |
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Who can forget Stanley Kowalski's restatement in A Streetcar Named Desire of the terms of the Napoleonic Code to his wife Stella? "Hey,Stella!"
By the way, Stanley was played in the movie adaptation by one of Nebraska's favorite sons, Marlon Brando, who was born in Omaha. |
