Essay
The New Nation, 1783–1815
The leaders of the American Revolution made three great gambles. First, they sought independence...
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Showing results 1 – 10 of 13
Glossary Term – Event
Lewis and Clark Expedition
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the territories gained through the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery set out from St. Louis and explored 8,000 miles along the Missouri and Columbia Rivers and reached the Pacific. The expedition returned in 1806.
Glossary Term – Event
Louisiana Purchase
In 1800, Spain secretly ceded the Louisiana Territory—the area stretching from Canada to the Gulf Coast and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains—to France, which then closed the port of New Orleans to American farmers. Americans in the West, left without a port from which to export their goods, were incensed. President Thomas Jefferson feared that the establishment of a French colonial empire in North America would block American expansion. He sent negotiators to France, with instructions to purchase New Orleans and as much of...
Glossary Term – Person
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) seized power in France at the end of the French Revolution and turned his focus toward expanding his empire. In 1803, Napoleon sold the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. Also in 1803, just before crowning himself emperor, Napoleon began waging wars for expansion, conquering most of Europe. Conflict between France and Great Britain complicated things for neutral America, with the warring countries placing restrictions on American trade. The United States responded to the restrictions with the...
Glossary Term – Person
Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809), a former soldier and personal secretary to President Thomas Jefferson, was sent on an expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory. Lewis was appointed and William Clark led the Corps of Discovery across the country, documenting the terrain, flora, and fauna of the Louisiana territory and making initial contact with American Indian tribes.
Glossary Term – Person
William Clark
William Clark (1770–1838) was the frontiersman and explorer who, with Meriwether Lewis, led the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the Louisiana Territory and Pacific Northwest in 1804–1806. Born in Virginia, Clark joined the militia on the Ohio frontier in 1789 and was commissioned as a lieutenant of infantry in the Army in 1792. Under General Anthony Wayne, Clark took part in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. He left the military in 1796 and in 1803 was invited by Meriwether Lewis to join him in leading an expedition through the Louisiana...
Glossary Term – Place
Louisiana
Louisiana was claimed for France by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682. In the early eighteenth century,while the French struggled to create permanent settlements in the territory, but they did establish New Orleans in 1718. The territory changed hands throughout the history of the Americas. The Spanish gained control over it in 1762 and ceded it back to the French in 1800. The territory was finally bought by the United States in 1803through Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.