【美国精神】第71期

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(green part is The Louisiana Territory¹)

Explanation:

  In the late 1700s, New Orleans was one of the United² States’ most important ports, since it was a city next to the water where ships or large boats could come and go. The United States used New Orleans to transport (or move) food and other products, but the city didn’t belong to the U.S. New Orleans first belonged to Spain and then to France. This was a problem for the United States, because if those other countries decided³ to block (or not allow) America’s access to New Orleans, the country wouldn’t be able to send and receive the things it wanted to buy and sell.

  So, when Thomas Jefferson was president, the United States negotiated⁴ (or reached an agreement) with France to buy New Orleans. The negotiators were prepared (or ready) to buy New Orleans for $10 million. Imagine how surprised they were when the French government offered to sell the entire (or whole) area, a much, much bigger area than just New Orleans known⁵ as the Louisiana Territory, for just $15 million. This area was almost 830,000 square miles! This was much more land than the U.S. had intended (or planned) to buy, but the opportunity was too good to pass up (or not buy).

  The territory was bought in 1803 and the transaction⁶ (or sale) became known as the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Territory was larger than the whole United States at that time. Today the area is almost one-fourth (or 25%) of the United States, covering 15 states and part of Canada.

  Most of the Louisiana Territory was uncharted land when it was bought, meaning that it was land that no one had explored (or traveled to and knew very much about). It was also home for many Native Americans who were not involved in the transaction and did not even know about the purchase. The United States and France had agreed that the U.S. would own the land, but the U.S. would spend the next years fighting the Native Americans there to decide who would actually get to use the land.

 

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