10-24-07 <a href="/keyword/louisiana-purchase/" >louisiana purchase</a> Spain's colonial empire is disintegrating around this time period Americans are confident that they can take control of this region o This confidence is shattered with Spain cedes to France (between Mississippi river and rocky mountains) o Napoleon is taking a lot of control Militarily protect this land they have been given The US wants to continue to expand westward o This creates anxiety when they cannot expand o Spain shuts down the ability for the US to navigate the lower Mississippi River This river is great for transportation James Monroe New Orleans o Tries to purchase New Orleans and West Florida from France They hope to gain control of the lower Mississippi by doing this Napoleon is making war in Europe o To make for funds to his war, he sells all of Louisiana and New Orleans to the US o They haggle over details of this purchase, and the US ends up paying only 15 million for all of this territory (this doubles its size) It is millions of acres of fertile farmland and many other goodies o This is one of the most extraordinary bargains in the history of the US Jefferson is ecstatic o He however is not sure that the <a href="/keyword/louisiana-purchase/" >louisiana purchase</a> is legal regarding the Constitution o Since it was such a great deal he went ahead and bought the land on practicality, therefore overruling principle Lewis and Clark Congress approves $2,500 for a small group to explore the territory of the <a href="/keyword/louisiana-purchase/" >louisiana purchase</a> o It will be called the Corpse of discovery o Led by Meriwether Lewis and his friend Clark They will travel there and back, thousands of miles, in four years o They will see things that no Americans have ever seen before Party consists of Clark, Lewis, and 31 other people o The 34th member is Lewis's dog, Seman o Another member will be Lewis's slave, York o 29 of them will be active participants in the development of the corpse of discovery o Camp Du Bios, Illinois they will journey up the Missouri river and stay at Fort Mandan in North Dakota Two members will be dismissed on arrival at the fort and replaced by Le Page, and Charbonneau Sacagawea and Jean Baptist (her son) come Charbonneau 10-24-07 Sacagawea is 17 Jean Baptist will be named Pompie April 1805 the are bound for the Pacific Ocean After being announced as the leader of Corpse of Discovery, Lewis makes many lists of supplies and educates himself is things like navigation, astronomy, botany, biology, medicine, etc... o This is all to be prepared Provisions will include guns, ammunition, medical supplies, etc... He will accumulate two tons of goods with the $2,500 Doctor Benjamin Rush o Educated Lewis on medicine o Signed the Declaration of Independence o He made something called Rush's Pills (nicknamed thunder-clappers) They would make you shit and vomit all over the place o He believed in expelling things, the way to heal is to get it out of your body They also took study books with information in them Lewis and Clark had a series of responsibilities o The responsibly of diplomacy They had to open good terms with any Indians they encountered. They're societies were based on kinship, but for European societies were based on hierarchies. o They had to record &quot;the face of the country&quot; the geography of the country (they had to map out it) Compiled into the Nicholas King 1803 Map They sketched what they saw