attract settlers in large number. At that time, an evident feeling of land-hunger arose, even if people travelled to lands the US did not yet own. Indeed, “virgin land was the magnet that drew American steadily westward.” (D.E. Fehrenbacher, The Era of Expansion, 1800-1848,(1969), p2) ***** ***** ***** This territorial expansion can also be considered as the result of a desire for military security and commerce. At the beginning of the 19th century, Jefferson realised that the USA should purchase New Orleans and enough of the West Florida to give it control of the mouth of the Mississippi and of the seas. So, he sent Livingston and Monroe to Paris to make the transaction. Napoleon decided that he would not sell New Orleans but the whole Louisiana for $ 15,000,000. (According to various sources, the price in francs varies from 60 to 80 millions). The 1803 Louisiana Purchase marked one of the largest, if not the largest, land transaction in history. Indeed, this territorial acquisition nearly doubled the size of the USA- it grew by about one million square miles, from the Mississippi to the Rockies, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada. It came about as a result of a concern to secure free navigation on the Mississippi River, the mouth of which was a strategically important spot (its ports making foreign trade possible). According to Jefferson, it would also insure the West against any future closing of the Mississippi and open new trading routes along Alabama and Tombigbe rivers. In 1804, Jefferson sent his personal secretary, Lewis, to “ explore the Missouri River and such principal stream of it, as, by its course ands communication with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, may offer the most direct and practical water in communication across the continent, for the purpose of commerce”.(Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion, A history of the American Frontier( chap XXII: the Traders’ ...
