Napoleon sold Louisiana because of mosquitoes. In 1802, he sent an army led by his brother-in-law General Charles Leclerc to take control of New Orleans and open up a wave of French settlement. Oh, and by the way, how about stopping off in Haiti to put down that pesky slave rebellion? Easy, peasy. Crack French troops quickly defeated the rebels and their leader Toussaint L’Ouverture (see below) signed an armistice. And then the French kidnapped him and put him in a prison where he died. Be careful about karma. A guerrilla war broke out and it started raining. The rains brought swarms of mosquitoes and with them yellow fever. The natives were immune at this point, but the French soldiers were not. They died in droves, including Leclerc. In a couple of years, the French lost about 50,000 men from the war and the disease. Napoleon decided to abandon the island and his plans for a New France in Louisiana. He sold it to the U.S., thus doubling the size of the new country.
– The Greatest War Stories Never Told pp. 64-65
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