Question

Use the excerpt from Ripley Hitchcock’s The Louisiana Purchase and the Exploration, Early History, and Building of the West to answer the question.

In 3-4 sentences, describe TWO reasons people at the time felt that the Louisiana Purchase was significant.

Answer 1

The Louisiana Purchase was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the United States purchased approximately 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. The land purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States and gave the country access to the Pacific Ocean.