Goals: On June 20th, 1803 Thomas Jefferson instructs Clark and Lewis on an expedition, to examine the Louisiana Purchase and establish trade threw Natives, explorer the Missouri river and learn about the natives. President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase from the French people in 1803 in doing so he needed the land to be examined. The purchase given to him of this large mass of land west of the Mississippi River is one of the most important events in history. Thomas Jefferson’s next plan after making this massive purchase was to attempt another expedition to explore the territory. Having already chosen Meriwether Lewis to head an expedition west, the Louisiana Purchase added an additional political element to the expedition (informing all Native American Nations that the United States owned the Territory). Both Lewis and Clark had a great task to achieve to please president Thomas Jefferson their main goal was to follow the Missouri River west in order to connect the river to all the water to the Pacific Ocean. They never exactly found a water route, but lucky enough they achieve their other goals. The expedition took them 28 months and covered 8,000 miles. learning about the natives that lived in the territories was the main goal for Lewis and Clark to examine because in order to move them out to a different area they …show more content…
He did not attempt to hide the Lewis and Clark expedition itself from Spanish, French, and British officials, but rather claimed different reasons for the venture. Between 1804 and 1806, Lewis and Clark—together with their Corps of Discovery members and Native-American guides, like Sacagawea—explored parts of the Louisiana Purchase (which the U.S. had acquired from France in 1803). The newly acquired territory extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to