Deal or Shit Deal

In today's Deal or Shit Deal we take you back to one of the biggest cash-for-territory transactions in the history of the universe, the Louisiana Purchase. Two hundred and three years ago today, a formal ceremony was held in St. Louis to officially transfer ownership of the territory involved.

The first thing you'll want to note is that the Louisiana Purchase has nothing to do with Pete Maravich being traded by the Atlanta Hawks to the New Orleans Jazz for a bunch of draft picks and lowlifes from the expansion draft. It was in fact a trade between the U.S. and France - we gave France about $23 mill, and in exchange, they gave us Louisiana.

Of course, $23 mill back then would be worth so much money today that it's actually mathematically impossible to calculate. But before you start yelling "shit deal! definitely shit deal!" take a look at that map up there. Louisiana was a lot bigger back then too. We're talking 530 million acres worth of unblemished natural resources to ruin and Indians to disenfranchise. The territory involved today accounts for all of Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and large parts of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Louisiana, including New Orleans. We even got parts of Canada in the deal, which we later pawned off to the Canadians in exchange for hockey. In all, as far Louisiana Purchases go, in this one I'd say that we were the Jazz, and they were the Hawks.