Читать книгу Anglo-American Cultural Studies - Jody Skinner - Страница 42

The territory originally recognized as being part of the United States of AmericaAmerica extended from the Atlantic coast in the east to the MississippiMississippi RiverMississippi River in the west. We’ve already heard that FranceFrance was present in the New WorldNew World almost from the start and settled the area around the Great LakesGreat Lakes. The French also claimed large portions of the interior of the continent along the Mississippi River, lost these to SpainSpain, and then won them back again. To solve his financial problems Napoleon decided to sell the vast area called LouisianaLouisiana, which JeffersonJefferson, Thomas agreed to buy. The Louisiana PurchaseLouisiana Purchase was a very good buy, doubling the size of what was [39]then the United States. In 1804 the deal was signed, and not long after two explorers named Lewis and ClarkLewis and Clark set off to see exactly what the new land was like and also to find a way through the mountains to the Pacific, assisted by a Shoshone IndianIndian woman named SacajaweaSacajawea, who would embellish a US dollar coin two hundred years later.

Fig. 2.2

SacajaweaSacajawea dollar coin

Fig. 2.3

Territorial expansion map

The area in the middle of the map is the LouisianaLouisiana PurchaseLouisiana Purchase. (The area that would later become the state of Louisiana is only a small part of this great expanse of land.) Other shaded areas show land areas that were to become part of the United States by acquisition such as FloridaFlorida, acquired from SpainSpain twenty years after the Louisiana Purchase, or large portions of the west taken from Mexico. The famous term “manifest destiny” was used in the middle of the 19^th century to justify first the annexation of TexasTexas during the Mexican-American WarMexican-American War and then the gradual turning of all land right up to the Pacific Ocean into American territory and then into American states ( 6). But we’re getting ahead of ourselves now. Let’s return to 1812.