The Louisiana Purchase/Lewis and Clark

The Louisiana Purchase is probably one of the events that really got our country growing. The United States gained so much territory just from that one purchase. It all started with Napoleon Bonaparte. He is mostly known for his amazing role in ruling France and most of Europe. But Napoleon wanted to expand even more to the point where he wanted to move over to North America. So during this time he gained French territory there. But at some point in time, he decided to sell it.

At first, Napoleon originally just wanted to sell New Orleans. But, he decided later to sell the WHOLE Louisiana Territory. When he did decide to sell it two men came to represent the United States to negotiate purchasing the territory. Those men were Robert Livingston and James Monroe. It took quite a lot of money to buy the land. Napoleon negotiated with them to sell the territory $0.03 per acre. The total cost added up to be around $15,000,000. But, there was a ton of land so they got what they paid for. Purchasing this land was one of the best decisions the United States ever made. Even though it was very successful getting all the territory they weren’t very familiar with the area so they need further exploring to understand all of it.

So, Thomas Jefferson appointed a man named Meriwether Lewis to go on this expedition not only to explore the new land they gained but to find a continuous waterway to the Pacific Ocean. He went on that journey but not alone. Yes he had other men but he also brought along a friend of his named William Clark to explore with him on this great expedition. They were the main men that led this trip. This journey didn’t just take a couple months but a couple years. Luckily, not many people got injured or sick except 1 man.

They went on to explore this vast land but they were not the only ones in the area. There were many different tribes of Indians scattered all over the place. Many were not so welcoming but there was one lady that was of great use to the men. She is well known to this day as their navigator but she did much more than just that. Her name was Sacagawea. Unlike the other Indians she and her family (her husband and child) welcomed them. Sacagawea wanted to come along with them on their journey not only to navigate them to where they needed to go but to also be a translator. Yes, this was North America and most people spoke English but the native tribes all spoke different languages. So if the men had questions on the direction they needed to go they would ask some of the tribes. Sacagawea translated the languages for them so they would understand. This was great help to them.

Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful on finding a continuous waterway to the Pacific but they did discover the great ocean. A lot of people would look at this expedition as very unsuccessful but I don’t think so at all. The men were able to make acquaintances with the native tribes and explore the massive land that the United States gained. Since this was another totally different area compared to where the 13 colonies are located there were also a lot of different wildlife that were spotted. Like prairie dogs, grizzly bears and more.

Since there was a ton of area that the United States gained from the Louisiana Purchase they decided to break it up just like they did with the states in New England. So they achieved creating most of the western states that many people live around today like,

Arkansas

Texas

Oklahoma

Louisiana

North and South Dakota

Nebraska

Iowa

Kansas

Colorado

Wyoming

Missouri

Minnesota

New Mexico

Montana

So, to me I think that that expedition was extremely successful and necessary for our country to grow to what it is today. I think without the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, and the expedition that Lewis and Clark went on, it would have taken longer (and maybe not at all) for the United States to gain that land.