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Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase is described as the cause of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. During the French and Indian war, France surrendered a lot of Louisiana land to Spain. Once Napoleon Bonaparte became leader of France, he decided to take that land back. Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert Livingston to France to purchase New Orleans. France's foreign minister offered to sell the entire area of Louisiana for $15 million. -
Sacagawea
While at Fort Mandan, Lewis and Clark hired a man named Toussaint Charbonneau and hired him as an interpreter for the natives. He soon married an Indian woman named Sacagawea. -
The Expedition Begins
Lewis and Clark left out of St. Louis Missouri. The men that they took with them were unmarried and skilled in hunting and survival. They traveled upstream on the Missouri River. To maintain discipline, hard labour and harsh punishments were put into place for anyone who wasn't maintaining order. -
Crossing the Continental Divide
Lewis and Clark sent some of their crew members to St. Louis with plants and other zoological items while most of the crops went for the Pacific. They passed through Montana and reached the continental divide where Sacagawea helped buy horses from the other Indians. -
The Arrival Back
The Expedition arrives in St. Louis. Lewis writes to Jefferson that the group has “penetrated the
Continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean.”
