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What Are The Events That Led Up To Louisiana Purchase

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Thomas Jefferson, former president of the United States, helped make a decision in 1803 that would forever change the future of the continental United States of America. Jefferson sent two representatives to Paris in hopes of being able to purchase New Orleans, and ended up learning that they were able to purchase the entire territory of Louisiana for only fifteen million dollars. This deal would later be known as the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson was curious about the completely unknown land that the United States had just purchased, so he decided to hire Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to go on an expedition and explore the land west of the Mississippi. The combination of these two events led to millions of settlers expanding and developing …show more content…

The first event that led up to the Louisiana Purchase was the French Revolution which was started because the French citizens were tired of the monarchy of King Louis XVI. Louis XVI ended up being overthrown and Napoleon Bonaparte was put into power. The French Revolution left France in a very poor state with extreme financial struggles, and tensions with Great Britain were apparently rising. Napoleon needed money if he wanted to go to war. “Napoleon gave up dreams of a New World empire and no longer needed Louisiana as its breadbasket. His more urgent need was for money to wage war against Britain” (Norton 226). On April 30th, 1803, two representatives sent to France ended up purchasing the Louisiana Territory for fifteen million dollars. This purchase would be one event that would help shape the future of the western United …show more content…

After Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory, he was very interested in what lay beyond the Mississippi. He hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to lead the expedition that began in May 1804. The expedition was known as the Corps of Discovery (Fay). Thirty-five men were involved in the expedition that extended all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back. This expedition led to the discovery of many unknown things that captivated the interest of eastern settlers seeking new territories. Lewis and Clark felt that they were responsible to record all of the observations that they made while they were on their expedition (Moulten). One thing that they recorded was the climate of the region. On December 17th, 1804, the crew recorded the temperature to be forty-five degrees below zero and said it was the coldest that they ever knew it could be in the United States (Salter). The crew was also able to record the geography of the West during the expedition. The Corps of Discovery found lots of productive soil, valuable grazing land, and forests during the trip (Fay). This discovery would prove to be very important to the settlement of the west because it attracted the farmers looking for better soil than that in the east. The Lewis and Clark expedition was also able to discover many new plant and animal species in the region. In

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