【1/18 今日美史】这个远征为美国的西进运动打下了基础
今
日
美
史
每天一篇“今日美史”，提炼和总结历史在今天发生的重要事件：谁，在哪里，什么时候，做了什么，这件事为什么重要，以及在写关于什么主题的论文的时候可以作为潜在的论据引用。
每天30秒，轻松积累史实
为AP美国历史拿5分打下坚实基础
1/18
Prohibition took effect
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significant
Just a week earlier, the Congress approved funding for the Louisiana Purchase, as Napoleon abandoned plans to establish a French foothold on America’s southern flank and sold the land to the U.S. to subsidize his conquest of Europe. This brought much of the territory Jefferson was proposing to explore under American control.
Though Jefferson did not disclose his true intentions to Congress, he actually planned the reconnaissance mission to far exceed the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase to determine how far west the U.S. might extend commerce in the North American fur trade and to assess the viability of future territorial expansion into the west. Jefferson was excited about what scientific discovery and adventure the expedition might yield.
The team, which Jefferson called the Corps of Discovery, was comprised by Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and 50 others. They first surveyed the territory that comprised the Louisiana Purchase, a vast expanse that reached as far north as present-day North Dakota, south to the Gulf of Mexico and stopped at the eastern border of Spanish territory in present-day Texas. They then crossed the Rockies and navigated river routes to the Pacific coast of present-day Oregon. Upon their return, the team’s reports of the exotic and awe-inspiring new lands they had encountered sparked a new wave of westward expansion.
Route of the expedition
Viewing westward expansion as a way for the U.S. to maintain its agrarian values and to ward off the same political perils that plagued an increasingly overcrowded Europe, Jefferson sought to claim more territory for the U.S., eliminate foreign competition and convert the Indian nations to Christianity.
Tags
President Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark expedition, Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion