A Comparison Of The Lewis And Clark Expedition

Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Expansion of America

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. This country has accomplished tremendous amounts, but we may not be here today if it wasn’t for one of the greatest events in history… The Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Back in the 1800 there was much talk about the land that lies behind the Appalachians. Mountains. As New Orleans,a big trading city in Louisiana territory, was closed off by the Spanish, this angered the Americans very much which almost led to a war. To avoid this drastic measures Jefferson offered to buy New Orleans from France. The American got a surprising offer back saying if they wanted to buy the whole Louisiana Territory, which at the time was bigger the whole United States. As this was a great offer by Napoleon, Jefferson was skeptical to take it as it never says anything about a president's right to buy land in the constitution but he also believed that this country’s farmers need land, so he took the offer for fifteen million dollars. This purchase was known as the Louisiana Purchase.

Now that the purchase has been made Jefferson was eager to make an expedition to explore the land that had just been purchased. For this journey Jefferson hired a young officer, Captain Meriwether Lewis to lead the trip. From there

Lewis hired his old friends Lieutenant William Clark to help him select and look over a group known as the Corps of Discovery. Clark ended up being a great leader and outdoors man which really helped them along the journey. Now that Lewis had pulled together a crew that would be accompanying him across the vast areas of the west, the Lewis and Clark expedition could start its journey.
In 1803 Lewis, Clark, and the corps started their journey to St. Louis. As the city was located on the mid-western part of the Mississippi River it was a great place the group to start their journey to the west. Though the group was ready to start their trip, they waited until March of 1804 because the ceremony that transferred the territory of Louisiana to the United States had not been done yet so once they truly go the approval that the land was there they finally started their trip.
In May of 1804 Lewis, Clark, and the corps started their journey from St. Louis in hope of finding a water route across the continent. Another goal of the trip was to make a good relationship with the Indian tribes discovered while on the journey. To start their journey they started by going up the Missouri River. To go across these this vast piece of water the explorers all had to uses one shallow-bottomed river boat and two wooden canoes. This boat journeys were not easy. Sometimes because of the heavy current, they had to pull the boat rather than row or sail. Though these times were tough, by October the explorers had made it to the Mandan Indian village and were about to meet a very crucial person on their journey to explore the west.
When reaching the Mandan village they set up for the winter.

As it was going to be very cold they could not just sleep anywhere, so they built small forts. Since they were on the Mandan land they had to interact with the Indians and with they they became pretty good allies. The explorers exchanged many products and ideas but by spring they had left to go explore more of the country. Though they had to leave the Mandan tribe they did take along some friends and one of the key people in that group was a lady by the name of Sacagawea. The reason Sacagawea was such a big help to the explorers was knowledge of the Indian languages and and her know of the geography of the

west.
As the group kept moving west, they did have obstacle in their way when they reached the Great Falls of Missouri. Though the beautiful scenes were a great sight they still did have to get around them. To do this they had to carry their supplies including boats and goods around the 18 mile trek. Because of harsh conditions and obstacles it took the group about 2 weeks to finally pass the area but now the trip was back on.
As the group edged closer to the Rocky Mountains, Sacagawea pointed out the Shoshone lands to the people. Here Sacagawea, Lewis, and a small group all found the people of the Shoshone and their leader. There the leader recognized Sacagawea as her sister and helped with to moving situation. He traded them horses and gave big help by helping them cross the Rocky Mountains. Without meeting the Shoshone tribe, the group might not have made it through the harsh conditions of the Rocky Mountains.
Now that the group had got past the hardest parts, it was smooth sailing from there. The met with the Columbia river which ended up leading to the Pacific Ocean and the last parts of the west. In November of 1805 the group reached the Pacific Ocean and spent a very wet winter there before going back to St. Louis.
Though the trip may have seemed just about meeting with Indian tribes and finding their way to the Pacific Ocean, it was also about looking at new finding of west such as plants and animals. Some animal that were discovered were some such as the grizzly bear, the mountain lion, the bull snake, the coyote and a lot more. Some of the plants that were discovered were some such as tarragon, silver sage, the prairie apple, evergreen huckleberry, and a lot more. This findings and sample of the things such as plants not only helped the people of America grow more of the food from the west but it gave them a better understanding of their land.
The expedition was a big success. Not only did the people of America finally know what was in the land they owned but they also got to have good relationships with some of the tribes met along the way. The work of Lewis, Clark , and many other really helped expanding are information of the west and eventually the building of our great country.