Louisiana Purchase

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Louisiana Purchase

• Manifest Destiny

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• President Thomas Jefferson faced an important
  decision during the summer of 1803. Napoleon
  offered to sell the territory of Louisiana to the
  U.S. for 15 million. The purchase would double
  the area of the U.S.

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Negotiations

• Jefferson originally offered 2 million to buy
  only the region around the mouth of the
  Mississippi River, which included the port city
  of New Orleans. He wanted to protect farmers of
  the Ohio River Valley who depended on access to
  New Orleans.

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• Jefferson sent James Monroe who along with Robert
  Livingston was to negotiate with Napoleon.
  Authorized to spend as much as 10 million for
  New Orleans, shocked when Napoleon offered them
  all for 15 million.

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Consequences

• United States nearly doubled its land mass and
  became one of the worlds largest countries.
  Eventually all or parts of 13 states of the U.S.
  were formed from the Louisiana Territory. The
  territory included vast tracts of fertile soil
  and other natural resources. The Louisiana
  Purchase turned out to be a richer prize than
  anyone had imagined.

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Lewis and Clark Expedition

• Jefferson enlisted Meriwether Lewis and William
  Clark to explore and map out the territory which
  had just been purchased from Napoleon. This Corps
  of Discovery would forever change the U.S.

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1804- heading west

• The expedition headed west up the Missouri River
  in May 1804. Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman acted
  as a guide. Other Native Americans led the group
  through a path in the Rocky Mountains. The
  explorers eventually traced the Columbia River to
  the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark provided a
  wealth of info about Louisiana and gave U.S. a
  claim to Oregon Territory.

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Manifest Destiny

• Manifest Destiny was the idea that the U.S. was
  meant to spread to the Pacific.
• The Louisiana Purchase gave momentum to this
  idea.
• The Lewis and Clark expedition provided a wealth
  of new information for those eager to go west.
• Native American life would never be the same.

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Summary

• The Louisiana Purchase has been called the
  greatest real estate deal in history. For 15
  million, about 4 cents per acre, the U.S. got
  828,000 square miles of land west of the
  Mississippi River. Thirteen states were carved
  from the Louisiana Territory. The Purchase nearly
  doubled the size of the U.S., making it one of
  the largest nations in the world