Question

What are some reasons why the Louisiana purchase was important to American history?

Answer 1

the United States purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France,

Answer 2

@KrysKaroMas4 I understand that, but why was this important?

Answer 3

It doubled the amount of land and It was cheap

Answer 4

If you consider 15 million cheap

Answer 5

@osgood it was bought for 4 cents per acre. so yeah, its pretty cheap.
I need three reasons, and everyone is giving me the same answer.

Answer 6

The Louisiana Purchase, made 200 years ago this month, nearly doubled the size of the United States. By any measure, it was one of the most colossal land transactions in history, involving an area larger than today’s France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the British Isles combined. All or parts of 15 Western states would eventually be carved from its nearly 830,000 square miles, which stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to Canada, and from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. And the price, $15 million, or about four cents an acre, was a breathtaking bargain.“Let the Land rejoice,” Gen. Horatio Gates, a prominent New York state legislator, told President Thomas Jefferson when details of the deal reached Washington, D.C. “For you have bought Louisiana for a song.”




Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-louisiana-purchase-changed-the-world-79715124/#0pwPXUZUoTVAHlSK.99
Give the gift of Smithsonian magazine for only $12! http://bit.ly/1cGUiGv
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter