Materials

• Outline map of the United States for each student
• Class textbook

Instructional Activities

1. Display the following prompt on the board or overhead:
   
   Between 1776 and 1850, the United States expanded from 13 colonies hugging the eastern seaboard to a continental nation extending from “sea to shining sea.” Why, in your opinion, was America so eager to expand during this time period?
   
   After students have had a few minutes to write about this, allow time for them to share their responses with each other in pairs and then with the class as a whole.
   
   
2. Have the students use their textbooks or other resources to answer the following questions:
   • Who owned Louisiana in the 1790s? (Spain)
   • How did France gain possession of Louisiana? (treaty with Spain)
   • Why did Napoleon want to sell Louisiana? (France needed money as war in Europe resumed. After the slave revolt in Haiti in 1798, France no longer needed the land in Louisiana to grow food to feed the people in Haiti.)
   • Who negotiated the treaty with France? (James Monroe and Robert Livingston)
   • What did Jefferson initially want to buy? (the port of New Orleans)
   • How much did the United States pay for Louisiana? ($15 million — about twice the annual federal budget at that time)
   • What concerns, if any, did Jefferson have about the purchase? (He was concerned about the constitutionality of the purchase.)
   • What was the long-term significance of the purchase? (secured the Mississippi River, avoided conflicts with France, furthered possible alliance with Great Britain, strengthened the federal government, established a precedent for land purchases)
   
   
3. Give the students copies of the outline map of the United States. Tell them to use their textbook or other resources to label it to reflect the growth of the United States through the purchase of Louisiana in 1803.
   
   
4. Assign a teacher-selected reading, worksheet, or other reinforcement activity, using available resources.