The Louisiana Purchase and Westward Expansion

The Louisiana Purchase and Westward Expansion — page 3
8 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE AND WESTWARD EXPANSION The most significant event of the expansion period came in 1803 when the United States bought the enormous western territory called Louisiana from France The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States and provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on an expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase and the Pacific Northwest Lewis and Clark led their party up the Missouri River to its source Then they crossed the Rocky Mountains the western boundary of the Louisiana Territory and went down the Columbia River to the Pacific coast Soon American settlers and traders began to travel over the route Lewis and Clark had blazed Other hardy Americans made their own trails through and beyond the Rockies The pioneers pushing toward the Southwest and the Pacific coast braved the hos tility of foreign powers Mexico owned both Texas and California and the British had a strong claim to Oregon In each case the Americans first penetrated and then won complete control of the area With the admission of California to the Union in 1850 the United States finally stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific Its Manifest Destiny had been realized The American frontier was an escape and a place of hope for those willing and able to take their futures into their own hands Celebrated then and ever since in poetry short stories novels drama films music and