President Jefferson persuaded Congress to fund the effort. He worked with foreign diplomats in Washington to convince them that the exploration was for scientific purposes and would not threaten their interests. Both Britain and France accepted the proposal, but Spain objected, as it also still claimed the lands to be explored which it had just been forced to turn the Louisiana territories over briefly to the French Emperor Napoleon I who had suddenly unexpectedly turned and sold the vast interior continental lands to the Americans the year before. It did not want an armed military expedition within or near its remaining territory.