The Louisiana Purchase

Most of the land around the thirteen colonies was owned  by England , France and Spain . Some Americans  Leaders were afraid that this land might fill up with settlers from these other countries and later the people  would cause trouble for them. 

The  American  leaders wanted their country to own more land. Thomas Jefferson , who wrote the Declaration  of Independence  , hoped that the United States of America would  someday stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. When he became President of the United States , he asked the government to buy a huge chunk of land from the French. 

The French were having financial troubles and they desperately  needed the money . The Americans were able to buy the land from them. This new chunk of land was called  the Louisiana Territory . A territory was any land owned by the United States that had not yet become a state.

Jefferson sent out to explorers , Lewis and Clark , to find out what the land was like . The trip was dangerous  and after travelling  a few months, the team of forty – five people reached the Rocky Mountains . 

The Shoshone Indians  knew  about secret  path to cross the mountains , but they would not tell everyone. One of the team members was from this tribe of Indians . She  showed  them the way and the explorers  soon the reached  the Pacific Ocean. 

The trip to the Pacific  and back took two years. Lewis and Clark  documented  their trip and made maps of the land , showing the path they took.  They told the President that he got  the best land  buy there ever was. The price for the Louisiana Territory  , which  later made  up eight states, only cost 4 cent an acre. This land was rich with forests , rivers , mountains, animals and good farm land.