USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -All that the representatives knew was that the territory historically had been bordered on the south by the Gulf of Mexico and on the east by the Mississippi River between its mouth and its uncertain headwaters.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Rocky (then referred to as “Stony”) Mountains were accepted as the western limit of the Louisiana Territory, and the Mississippi River was considered for all practical purposes the eastern boundary of the great purchase.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west.

Detailed explanation-4: -Westward expansion began in earnest in 1803. Thomas Jefferson negotiated a treaty with France in which the United States paid France $15 million for the Louisiana Territory – 828, 000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River – effectively doubling the size of the young nation.

Detailed explanation-5: -In August 1805, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached Lemhi Pass, the western edge of the Louisiana Territory and the United States. For months, they had fought their way up the Missouri river to reach its headwaters.