-- 10 --
W EST TO THE PACIFIC
Territorial Growth to 1853A41_l'I'_"'""'1'......G«.._....""""''''' 1842III 18 00 th e westernbound aryortheU n itedStates
wastheMississippiRive r.Be yon ditswideand
muddywarcrs t h e r ew e r eg rea ta rea soflan dthrough
winchfewwhitepeo plehad traveled.Theland
stretchedwestto rmo ret h an60 0milestothe
foothillsoftheRo ck y M o untains. Itw asknownat
thetime as Lo u isiana.
lu 18 00 Louisian abelongedtofrance.Therulerof
France atthis tim ew asNapoleon.whowould.SOOl1
become th ecountry'semperor.Americansfeared
thatNapoleonmight sen dFren chsoldiersand
settlers toLo u is ian a andso b lockth e furth er
westwardg rowthoftheUnited States.
Thenth e Ameri can swerevcryluc k y .[ 111803
N ap o le o nwas abouttog o toWJrw ithBritainand
n eed edmOllCY.Forfifteenm illiondollarshesol d
Lo uisian atot heUnitedStates." \Vchavelivedlo ng
butthisis th e nobles t work ofourwholelives,"said
o neofth e A m erica nre pr ese ntat iveswhosignedthe
agreement.
Lo uisian a stre tc hednorthfro mtheGulfofMexico to
theCanadian bo rdera ndwest fromtheMississipp i to
40
t heRockyMountain s.Its pur ch asealmostdoubled
thelan dareao f t heUnitedStares.Inrime,allorpJ.rts
o f th irteen n e wst areswould beformedt here.
T heLouisian aPurchaseW;\Sauthorize dbyPresident
Tho m as Jeffer so n ,EvenbeforethisJeffersonhad
beenplanning tosendan expedition to explo re
LOUISian a.H e w asa keen amateurSCie n tista n d
wantedto knowmoreabou tthegccgrap h v ,the
people , t he an imalsan dtheplantsofthelandstot he
w estoftheUnitedStates.H e also hopedth atthe
explorersmightrind an easywayacrossNorth
A m e ricatot he Pacifi cOcean.
T heexpeditionwasled byMe riw e th erLe w isand
WilliamClark.In thespringof 180 -1it s t w ent y- m n c
menleftth e tr adi n g posto f St. Lou is.wheret he
Misso u ri R ivertlo wsin fromthenorthwes ttomeet
t heMississ ippi. T heexplorer ssc roffupth eMissouri
byboat.Am on gtheir suppliesrhe yea r n ed-1,6UO
need les.2,800 fishinghooks. 132knivesan d 72
piecesofstriped"ilkribbo n ,T he yca rr iedt hese
goodstot radeWithAme rind ia n"alongth eway.