Here read my first forum answer, I actually did it!! To describe the territorial evolution of the United States we need to look at a two major factors.The most obvious and largest growth would be the Louisiana purchase; and Natural human curiosity and exploration (Lewis and Clark). With those factors now firmly set we can delve into why each one happened. The Louisiana purchase was originally intended to be the acquisition of just New Orleans and west Florida. James Monroe was sent by Jefferson to Paris with 10 million dollars and ended up getting much more.(ushistory.org/us/20c.asp).Even though the constitution did not contain provisions to acquire the territory they decided to purchase anyways. The US needed to remove France’s presence and ensure trade access to the port of New Orleans which Napoleon owned at the time.The reason Napoledon sold so cheap was to prevent a impending war with Britain, Napoleon sold the territory at a very low cost, 4 cents a acre! Which has now doubled the size of the United States. Which is why this is the largest territory gain America had seen. Jefferson had a vision for a expedition out west years before it even happened. According to Jefferson himself, one goal was to find the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce. Jefferson also placed special importance on declaring U.S. sovereignty over the land occupied by the many different tribes of Native Americans along the Missouri River, and getting an accurate sense of the resources in the recently completed Louisiana Purchase.(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition) Jefferson sent out Merriwether Lewis and William Clark (or the Corps of Discovery) in 1804 to get as much info as they could along with 50 others. Fortunately, we came across Mandan Village which had many large,successful villages. Which was where they picked up a key member to the group Sacagawea and her french husband. Sacagawea was not only a symbol of peace which may have proved to be the most important value, but she was also a guide and interpreter. By the winter of 1805 they had reached the Pacific from the Columbia River. When they returned to Jefferson they were seen as heroes. Lewis and Clark provided knowledge of the land which gave the United States insight on how to expand to the west.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 06:11:23 +0000
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