Thomas Jefferson payed $15 million in 1803 to acquire the French territory of Louisiana, 529,911,680 acres that included far more than just the current U.S. State of Louisiana. The Louisiana Purchase, as it has come to be called, included all or parts of the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. In fact, the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase makes up over one-fourth of the entire territory of the continental United States!