Brief look at how the young United States picked up the Louisiana Territory from France and the begininngs of the Lewis and Clark-led Corps of Discovery. This leads into the PBS on-line simulation "Into the Unknown" found here: www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/into/index.html.

1. New
land

2. First steps
• At the end of the
Revolution, Britain gave the
United States all of the land
between the Appalachian
Mountains and the
Mississippi River.

3. This doubled the size of the
United States and changed
it from
just an
ocean front
nation.

4. louisiana
• In 1803, Thomas Jefferson
took advantage of an
opportunity from Napoleon
Bonaparte of France to
double again the size of the
nation.

5. louisiana
• Jefferson knew Western farmers
needed to get their products out
to sea and to the world and,
therefore, it was important for
the United States to control New
Orleans and the mouth of the
Mississippi River.

6. louisiana
•James Monroe and Robert
Livingston were sent to
France with permission to
pay up to $10 million for
that land.

7. louisiana
• When they arrived in France
and found out that Napoleon
was willing to sell all of
Louisiana, they offered $15
million and hoped that they
would be supported when they
returned home.

8. concerns
• Jefferson, as a strict
constructionist, struggled with
the decision to buy Louisiana,
primarily because there was no
provision in the Constitution for
the government purchasing land
from another country.

9. concerns
• Also, $15 million was a lot
of money for the government
to spend.

10. concerns
• But, ultimately, Jefferson
decided that the Louisiana
Purchase was in the best
interest of the United States
and decided to go ahead with
it.

11. The Louisiana Purchase gave
the United States control of the
land from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Rocky Mountains.

12. The Voyage
• President Thomas Jefferson
sent out Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark to explore
all of this new land and to
find a route to the Pacific
Ocean.

13. The Voyage
•The decision to explore
the territory was already
being put in place as the
decision to buy Louisiana
was being made.

14. The Voyage
• In fact, Lewis and Clark
found out that the Louisiana
Territory had become the
property of the United States
during the voyage of
discovery.

15. Their journey began on
May 14, 1804 as they
left St. Louis, Missouri
to explore what was
labeled “Unknown” on
their maps.