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Westward Expansion Of The Louisiana Purchase Before 1803

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Louisiana Purchase, the western half of the Mississippi River basin purchased in 1803 from France by the United States, at less than three cents per acre for 828,000 square miles. It was the greatest land bargain in U.S. history. The purchase doubled the size of the United States, greatly strengthened the country materially and strategically, provided a powerful impetus to westward expansion, and confirmed the doctrine of implied powers of the federal Constitution. The Louisiana Territory had been the object of Old World interest for many years before 1803. Many Explorations and scattered settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries would give France control over the river and title to most of the Mississippi valley. The first serious disruption

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