Transcript The Louisiana Purchase

Bellwork
• Write down anything you know about: Lewis
and Clark, Thomas Jefferson, Louisiana
Purchase, or James Monroe.
American History
Section 5, Unit 4
Expanding Nation
Objectives
• Discuss the presidency of Thomas Jefferson
• Identify how the United States received new
territory after the Louisiana Purchase
• Map the travels and identify important people
met during the Lewis and Clark Explorations
• Examine the legacy of Lewis and Clark– among
other explorers
• Identify the longer term impact of the
Louisiana Purchase
Quick Review
• Who became President in the last lesson?
• What was the effect of the Marbury v.
Madison ruling?
• What did the 12th Amendment do?
• Why did the Federalists lose power?
Jefferson Takes Office
• Thomas Jefferson’s victory in 1800 led some to
refer to the event as the “Revolution of 1800”.
– Despite the name, it came about very peacefully.
• Jefferson promised moderation and followed
through on that by keeping in place some
Federalist programs, such as the national bank
and the debt payment plan– despite the fact he
opposed both at one point.
• He also tried to follow Washington’s precedent
and maintained a neutral course of action on
foreign affairs.
States rights
• Jefferson, however, did
not abandon his view that
a federal government
with too much power
threatened individual
freedoms and the states’
rights.
• He urged the Republicancontrolled Congress to
overturn several
federalist programs.
Removed Federalist Programs
• Under the Republicans, Congress removed
several unpopular Federalist programs
including:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Whiskey Tax
Judiciary Act of 1801
Cut military funding
Reduced the size of the army and navy
a. Jefferson believed that a smaller military budget
could help ail a nation suffering from a large national
debt.
Trans-Appalachian West
Federalists supported a strong national
government over the states. Why would
this cause them to not want to expand?
• Republicans made great
gains in the TransAppalachian west (the
area in pink) during the
election of 1800.
• This was most likely due
to the fact Republicans
supported expansion,
unlike the Federalists
who believed that
expansion will only
weaken the Federal
government.
Expansion
• Jefferson hoped that one day in the future,
America would expand so far as to cover both
the northern and southern continents.
– Such a view appealed to western settlers who
often moved from one place to another due to
poor farming practices and soil erosion.
– Ultimately, the settlers in the west continuously
wanted fertile land.
Search for Land
• Fertile land was not enough for settlers,
however.
• Settlers needed access to the Mississippi River
and to the port of New Orleans so that they
could get their produce to the market.
• However, events in 1800 put that access in
danger.
– Review Question: What did Pickney’s Treaty do?
It said that Spain would give America access to New Orleans and the Mississippi
River.
If this is true, then who controlled New Orleans, Mississippi, and Louisiana?
Napoleon Comes to Power
• Initially, the French had held control over
Louisiana. However, Spain had bought the
territory from the French prior to the end of
the French and Indian War (Seven Years War).
• After Napoleon came to power, he engaged in
a secret treaty with Spain and regained the
territory (Louisiana)– a vast swath of land that
goes through the mid-western United States
and goes up the Mississippi River.
Alarms
• Rumors of this transfer alarmed Jefferson and
other Americans.
• French control of the Mississippi River would limit
American trade and block westward expansion.
• To remedy the situation, Jefferson ordered Robert
R. Livingston– a U.S. minister to France– to
negotiate with France for a U.S. port at
Mississippi or access New Orleans.
– Talks took almost two years to complete.
James Monroe
• Jefferson then sent
James Monroe in 1803
to assist Livingston in
negotiations.
• Jefferson instructed
Monroe to offer
Napoleon as much as
$10 million for New
Orleans and West
Florida.
New Offer
• No sooner than Monroe arrived in France did
Napoleon’s representative provided an offer:
France was willing to sell all of Louisiana
• The astonished American diplomats quickly
agreed to pay $15 million for the entire area–
almost 4 cents an acre.
What was this deal called?
Louisiana Purchase
The United States
completed the
Louisiana Purchase
in 1803.
Arguably, the
purchase was more
than likely the
largest land deal in
history… but
Jefferson had his
reservations.
Louisiana Purchase
• Being someone who believed that the
government can only do what is said in the
Constitution, Jefferson wondered if the
Constitution gave the U.S. the right to buy land
from a foreign nation.
• He felt it necessary that a constitutional
amendment be passed to permit the purchase.
– However, an amendment would take too much time
and he feared that Napoleon would change his mind.
Instead of passing an amendment, Jefferson silently
pushed the treaty through the Senate.
Louisiana Purchase
• Question: The Louisiana Territory was large
and arguably quite valuable. If that’s true, why
do you think that Napoleon was so willing to
sell it?
The French no longer had any use for the territory
because they had no way to protect it. The French, at
one time, held territory in San Dominque (now Haiti),
but the territory was lost to African revolutionaries
who removed French presence. With no foothold in
the West Indies to defend Louisiana, Napoleon
decided that it was worth selling for $15 million to
increase his ability to dominate Europe.
Exploring the Territory
• Neither the buyer nor seller knew exactly how
large the territory was. To find out, Jefferson
assigned the task to two skilled frontiersmen:
Meriwether Lewis
William Clark
Lewis and Clark Expeditions
• The Lewis and Clark Expeditions left St. Louis
in 1804, with approximately 45 men
accompanying them.
• Lewis and Clark kept very detailed notes on
their travels, as per the request of President
Jefferson.
Native American Help
• The expedition also received help from Native
American groups in the region- primarily the
Mandans and Shoshones.
• After the first winter, however, Lewis and Clark
hired a French-Canadian fur trader and his
Shoshone wife, Sacagawea.
– These two were meant to be guides and
interpreters.
Sacagawea
• Sacagawea proved invaluable
to the expedition.
• She showed members of the
expedition how to fish, where
to hunt, and where to forage
for food.
• As well, being an interpreter
meant she was able to help
the expedition trade with
native groups along the way–
such as getting them horses.
York
• Relations with the Native
American’s during the
expedition were generally
good.
• However, their relations
were further enhanced by
the presence of York, an
African slave.
– In his journals, Clark observed
that the Natives were quite
impressed by York’s strength…
and they were interested in
seeing an African.
Lewis and Clark Expedition
• The whole of the expedition traveled up the
Missouri River, across the Rocky Mountains,
and towards the Pacific Ocean along the Snake
and Columbia rivers.
• After nearly two and a half years of
expedition, the expedition returned.
Return
• Upon their return, the expedition brought
with them various items:
– Plant and animal specimens
– Animal bones
– Pelts
– Soil and mineral samples
• However, before Lewis and Clark had a chance
to publish their chronicles, the reports of
another explorer appeared in print.
Zebulon Pike
• Zebulon Pike was an
explorer who visited the
upper Mississippi Valley
region and went as far
west as Colorado before
returning home, via the
Spanish town of Santa Fe.
• Pike’s descriptions of the
West gave Americans
their first glimpse at lands
beyond the Mississippi.
Zebulon Pike (cont.)
• Zebulon Pike’s expeditions helped spur
expansion into Texas and the Southwest by
Americans.
• However, his depiction of the Great Plains as a
large desert led many to believe that the area
was unsuitable for settlement.
– The Great Plains would later become an
agricultural center for America.
Routes taken
Importance of the Louisiana Purchase
• The Louisiana Purchase
increased the U.S. and
gave it a larger
international stature.
• It also added all or part
of 13 future states to
the region.
• However, with growth
came consequences.
Consequences
• The Louisiana Purchase came with
consequences, despite the benefits.
• While it removed French threat from
American soil, the purchase opened the
interior for white settlement.
• People began to want to expand westward,
rather than eastward.
– The ideal promoted a greater sense of national
identity.
Native Americans
• However, the developments after the
purchase were not as positive for the Native
Americans.
• When France transferred the ownership of
Louisiana to the U.S., neither nation
considered the Native claims to land.
Sagoyewatha
• In response to the loss of land, Sagoyewatha
(a Native Leader) said:
“There was a time when our forefathers owned this great land.
Their seats [homes] extended from the rise to the setting sun…
Our seats were once large and yours were small. You have now
become a great people and we have scarcely a space left to
spread our blankets.”
Question: What is saying here?
Effect on Slaves
• The purchase also had a
negative effect on
African Americans.
• Historians point out
that the purchase may
have had unintended
effect of opening new
lands to southern
planters, which
extended slavery into
new territory.
The Louisiana Purchase
• Ultimately, the Louisiana Purchase, while
having a negative effect on several groups in
the United States, did change the face of the
United States forever and radically changed
how Americans would view their nation.
Closure
• In 2-3 sentences, write in your notebook what
you think the impact of the Louisiana
Purchase was. In other words, why do you
think the purchase is or was important to the
United States?
Review Objectives
• Discuss the presidency of Thomas Jefferson
• Identify how the United States received new
territory after the Louisiana Purchase
• Map the travels and identify important people
met during the Lewis and Clark Explorations
• Examine the legacy of Lewis and Clark– among
other explorers
• Identify the longer term impact of the
Louisiana Purchase
Questions
• If you have any questions, please ask now.
Video
• We are going to watch a video about
Jefferson’s democracy and how the Louisiana
Purchase (among other things) affected the
U.S.
Next Lesson
• In the next lesson, we will be covering the War
of 1812
Reading Review
Please read “Westward
Expansion: The
Louisiana Purchase”
and answer the
questions at the end of
it.