For much of the 18th century,
France and Spain were allies, but after the
execution of Louis XVI in 1793, Spain joined the
War of the First Coalition against the
French Republic but was defeated in the
War of the Pyrenees. In August 1795, Spain and France agreed to the
Peace of Basel, with Spain ceding its half of the island of
Hispaniola, approximating the modern
Dominican Republic. , long-serving French Foreign Minister; the Treaty was part of a complex web of related agreements In the 1796
Second Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain allied with France in the
War of the Second Coalition and declared war on Britain. This resulted in the loss of
Trinidad and, more seriously,
Menorca, which Britain occupied from 1708 to 1782 and whose recovery was the major achievement of Spain's participation in the 1778–1783
Anglo-French War. Its loss damaged the prestige of the Spanish government, while the British naval blockade severely affected the economy, which was highly dependent on trade with its
colonies in the Americas, particularly the import of silver from
New Spain. The effect was to place the Spanish government under severe political and financial pressure, the national debt increasing eightfold between 1793 and 1798.
Louisiana was only part of Spain's immense empire in the Americas, which it received as a result of the
1763 Treaty of Paris, when France ceded it as compensation for Spanish concessions to Britain elsewhere. Preventing encroachment by American settlers into the Mississippi Basin was costly and risked conflict with the U.S., whose merchant ships Spain relied on to evade the British blockade. Colonies were viewed as valuable assets; the loss of the sugar-producing colonies of Haiti (
Saint-Domingue),
Martinique, and
Guadeloupe between 1791 and 1794 had a huge impact on French business. Restoring them was a priority, and when
Napoleon seized power in the November 1799
Coup of 18 Brumaire, he and his deputy
Charles Talleyrand stressed the need for French expansion overseas. Their strategy had a number of parts, one being the
1798–1801 Egyptian campaign, intended in part to strengthen French trading interests in the region. In South America, Talleyrand sought to move the border between
French Guiana and
Portuguese Brazil south to the
Araguari or Amapá River, taking in large parts of Northern Brazil. Terms were contained in the draft 1797 Treaty of Paris which was never approved although similar conditions were imposed on Portugal in the 1801
Treaty of Madrid. A third was the restoration of
New France in North America, lost after the 1756–1763
Seven Years' War, with Louisiana providing raw materials for French plantations in the
Caribbean. The combination of French ambition and Spanish weakness made the return of Louisiana attractive to both, especially as Spain was being drawn into disputes with the U.S. over navigation rights on the
Mississippi River. Talleyrand claimed French possession of Louisiana would allow them to protect Spanish South America from both Britain and the U.S. ==Provisions==