Above is a map which depicts the Louisiana Purchase which was signed on April 30, 1803.

There is plenty of treatment on this which I decide not to relate in this post.

What is important is to ask what happened in the interim between the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and this purchase.

Is there an important date in between? Yeah, of course there is. There is the Declaration of Independence. There is also the Treaty of Paris in 1803.

Before going back to that event, what is it about this map that is similar and that which is different from the map from the previous post?

First, the map extends all the way to the west coast. Second, there is not a distinct depiction of the Appalachian Divide (at least that I can discern).

So, what does this say about the effectiveness of the King’s Royal Proclamation?

It seems that many people disregarded it. But, something doesn’t quite compute.

How is it that the King would forbid people from living west of the Appalachian Divide yet the United States have a boundary which extends to the east bank of the Mississippi?

Is there anything here that boundary disputants can learn from this history? It seems like we’re going to have to keep at this. Cheers!

Photo Credit: http://werehistory.org/louisiana-purchase/