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Show 86 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Acquisition of the Public Domain" Total Area Public Domain Area conceded to the United States by Great Britain in 1 783 and by the Convention of 1818 (Lake of the Woods boundary) 525,452,800 Ceded by seven states to the United States Louisiana Purchase, 1803 523,446,400 Florida, 1819 43.342,720 Annexation of Texas, 1845 247,060,480 Oregon Compromise, 1846 180,644,480 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848 334.479.360 Purchase from Texas, 1850 Gadsden Purchase, 1853 18,961,920 Alaska Purchase, 1867 365,481,600 233,415,680 523,446,400 43,342,720 180,644,480 334,479,360 78,842,880 18,961,920 365.481.600 "¦ Based on Donaldson whose figures the Bureau of Land Management has found sufficiently dependable to use in its Public Land Statistics, 1964. Included in the figures of public domain are somewhere between 40 million and 50 million acres of private land claims of which 34 million were confirmed and patented. The United States insisted on examining all such claims, even when the title was as clear as crystal and when approved to give a patent for the same. But the ownership of the bulk of the claims was not so clear. Though in all instances they were regarded as part of the public domain until the patent had issued the United States never did own them if the specifications in the treaties providing for acquisition meant much. |