What is the Louisiana Purchase?
The Louisiana Purchase is one of the greatest events in American History. It greatly influenced Western Expansion and is the reason the United States was even able to expand west. The Louisiana Purchase was the buying of the Louisiana Province which expands from the Missouri river to the Rocky Mountains. The President of that time was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was the mastermind behind purchasing the land. The land itself was purchased from the French would had recently gained it back from Spain. The French did not at all make it easy for the United States to purchase. Jefferson knew that he needed to purchase the land. The French was a very threatening power to the United States. The French could win if the two went into war but most of all the French owning the Louisiana province stopped western expansion of the United States. Jefferson came up with a very complicated plan that had some rough moments but in the end the purchase was made for a total of 15 million dollars. This purchase was made in 1803 in France. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States and added 14 states to the Union. It was a huge piece of western expansion because it gave the Americas land to expand in too. Thomas Jefferson is one of the greatest president to be in office because of the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase changed America and is a milestone in American History.