In 1803, America made a big purchase. Then, the United States acquired 530,000,000 acres of land from France known as ‘The Louisiana Purchase,’ a key chapter in America’s westward expansion.
Leading Up to Purchase
Before the 20th century, America was known as a “small colonial power,” according to Dr. Susan Hanssen, professor of history at the University of Dallas. The Louisiana Purchase represented a major step forward.
Prior to the purchase, President George Washington signed the John Jay’s Treaty into law (1795) – a treaty which “resolved all of the outstanding issues” America had with Britain, and “established American neutrality in the Napoleonic Wars,” according to Hanssen.
The treaty was supported by Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, John Jay, and John Adams.
Thomas Jefferson, however, was opposed. He thought the French Revolution fought for the “same ideals” as the American one.
When Jefferson became president, though, he did not have the popular supported needed to “enter the Napoleonic Wars in an alliance with France,” Hanssen said. Instead, he made The Louisiana Purchase.
The Purchase, with a price tag of $15 million, was a way of helping the French. They “needed ships and money to build new ships and faster ships, much more than they needed unexplored…territory in the innards of the American continent,” according to Hanssen.
French vs. American Revolution
Despite Jefferson’s support for the Napoleonic wars, he did not convince Americans to have a “positive view of the French Revolution,” Hanssen said – one characterized by the “mass confiscation of private property and the mass exiling of religious and priests.”
The American Revolution was, in many ways, the opposite. It favored private property, individual rights, and religious liberty, Hanssen said.
Exploration
After purchasing the land, Jefferson sent two men to explore the territory: Merriwether Lewis and William Clark. Specifically, the two men were tasked with finding a river running East to West.
The Founders thought that owing property along some of the major rivers – the Potomac, the Ohio, and the Missouri – would be lucrative with the properties acting as passage towards the East.
That dream was vanquished when the men confronted the Rocky Mountains and discovered that the Missouri River and the Columbia River do not connect.
The two men did discover, though, new plants and animals and Native American tribes both peaceful and “warlike,” Hanssen said. “ It was fascinating from an exploration point of view, but it didn’t give us what we needed.”