Louisiana Purchase
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Use the map on page 273 and your knowledge of social studies to answer the following questions:
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Objectives
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Terms and People
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
What was the importance of the purchase and exploration of the Louisiana Territory?
The tide of westward settlement sped up in the years after America’s independence.
By 1800, more than one million settlers lived between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Farmers shipped goods down the Mississippi to the port of New Orleans.
Most western settlers were farmers who relied on the Mississippi River.
From there, goods were loaded on ships and carried to markets across the Atlantic.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Spain, which controlled the Mississippi River and New Orleans, threatened to close the port to American ships.
Pinckney Treaty
This treaty guaranteed the right of Americans to ship goods down the Mississippi River to New Orleans.
To prevent this, �the United States negotiated the Pinckney Treaty �with Spain in 1795.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Americans demanded war with Spain.
Later, after the treaty had been signed, Spain withdrew the right of Americans to ship goods through New Orleans.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Jefferson feared that France would become dominant in America, as it was becoming �in Europe.
If that happened, westward expansion of the United States would be blocked.
French territory
To make matters worse, Jefferson learned that Spain had secretly given its Louisiana Territory to France.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Jefferson decided to try to buy New Orleans from the French.
He ordered James Monroe and Robert Livingston to make a deal �in Paris.
They soon discovered that the situation had shifted yet again.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Without Haiti, France would have trouble defending Louisiana in the event of a war.
The French had been driven from their colony on Haiti by a slave revolt.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Also, war between France and Britain was looming.
Napoleon needed money for the war.
Britain
France
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Because of France’s situation, Monroe and Livingston received a surprising offer.
France offered to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States.
Louisiana
New Orleans
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Jefferson hesitated to approve the purchase.
In the end, Jefferson decided that the purchase was constitutional because the President is able to make treaties with foreign countries.
Was it constitutional?
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
After buying the Louisiana Territory in 1803, Thomas Jefferson was eager to have it explored and mapped.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
In 1803, Jefferson convinced Congress to fund a western expedition.
Meriwether Lewis
He chose two army officers to lead the exploration.
William Clark
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Goals of the western expedition
Report back on the natural features of the region.
Look for a waterway from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.
Make contact with Native Americans.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Lewis and Clark left St. Louis in the spring of 1804 and explored the northern part of the Louisiana Territory.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Lewis and Clark’s expedition lasted for more than two years.
July 1804
August 1804
October 1804
The party reached the mouth of the Platte River, which feeds into the Missouri River.
The expedition followed the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rocky Mountains.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
July 1804
August 1804
October 1804
They met with Native Americans for the first time.
The Americans promised to give the tribes military support and trading rights in exchange for peace.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
July 1804
August 1804
October 1804
They camped in what is now North Dakota for the winter.
They were joined by Sacagawea, a Shoshone translator.
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August 1805
November 1805
March 1806
The party reached the continental divide.
They did not find a waterway to the Pacific. Instead, they had to navigate rapids �in their canoes.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
August 1805
November 1805
March 1806
They reached the Pacific Ocean by way of the Columbia River.
They began the return journey, which took about half a year.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
The journey of Lewis and Clark led many Americans to feel a sense of duty to expand west.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
From 1805 to 1807, Zebulon Pike explored the southern part of the Louisiana Territory.
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.
Pike returned home through Spanish New Mexico. Pike’s reports increased U.S. interest in the region.
Pike headed west to the Rocky Mountains. Partway up a mountain, he was forced to turn back.
Today, this mountain is known as Pike’s Peak.
Rocky Mountains
Pike’s Peak
TEKS 8C: Calculate percent composition and empirical and molecular formulas.