The Louisiana Purchase and national health care legislation were two historic events in the history of the United States. Both were huge steps forward for the county in different ways and both raised questions and controversy about the authority of the President of the United States or Congress. For the Louisiana Purchase, those opposed to the purchase and the treaty with France to make it possible for the United States to buy the land, claimed that the Constitution did give the President the authority to admit a new state to the Union, without the agreement of each state and the approval of Congress. The Louisiana Purchase was unconstitutional, but was never challenged because it benefited the country. On the national health care law, many states have started lawsuits claiming that Congress did not have the authority to require citizens to buy insurance, an important part of the law that was passed to make sure that all people have access to health care. National health care reform may also prove to be an historic advance, but the United States Supreme Court will soon decide if the law is constitutional or whether Congress exceeded its authority in passing the law. .
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Throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, economic imperialism became a popular method many European countries used, in which power was gained through wealth. A common tactic countries would use to gain wealth was through conquering territories and reaping the benefits of the resources that came with them. France completely adopted the idea of economic imperialism, and under the leadership of its Emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, France controlled territories all around the world by the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, Napoleon found that maintaining control and power in the many territories that France had obtained, was far more difficult than gaining the land itself, especially when it came to the land France controlled in North America.
