Alaska Purchase Research Paper

I. In year 1867, one vote gave United States the state of Alaska. The 1867 purchase of Alaska was approved by the Senate of America by the margin of just one vote- paving the way

The Louisiana Purchase was a portion of land west of the mississippi. It was purchased from Napoleon (French) by the U.S. for 15 million dollars in 1803. The U.S. wanted new orleans because then The United States would have a faster route to get to the coastal states. The federalist had legitimate problems with the Purchase and expressed them openly.

William Seward's proposal of the Alaskan Purchase sparked many different opinions on the matter. Most citizens are looking at Alaska as a poor decision. However many people see the benefits that Alaska can provide. Alaska lands have a wide abundance of natural resources, also not many residents. Using the natural resources could have a great impact on the Revolutionary side of the country, improving the need for resources in most businesses. Alaska would also open up many land areas to the U.S. that could benefit Military wise. Although Alaska would be the first U.S. territory that did not border the continent.

(Hence westward expansion). This was mainly because Thomas Jefferson knew as the third president of what would become the u.s.a that more people would equal more states and more states would equal more soldiers for time of war a beneficial part of claiming and from others, the losing a purchase had an effect on this the amount of people that were able to come to this land. Another reason was that far across on a different land,if napoleon hadn't bought the land hadn't bought the land, he could have built an empire right in North America,an unwanted thing for settlers and believers of manifest destiny, and lastly the louisiana purchase had an impact on the president's own interest Thomas Jefferson wanted to find out if the Mississippi ran into the pacific a thing that would lead to the infamous and widely talked about Lewis and Clark

In the late 1860’s, almost directly after the civil war, the United State’s influence in the world rose drastically. They had expanded territorially westward, and had experienced a population boom. With the industrial revolution modernizing how goods were being made and transported, many politicians debated whether or not the US should expand its borders outside of the clearly marked boundaries. The debate was heated, as some politicians didn’t want to act like other European countries at the time, such as France, Spain, Britain or Portugal. They sought to have a modest country with little dominance over other countries. Contrary to these politicians, others wanted the US to enforce their growing power over nearby territories in order

In Document 3, a Congressman John Randolph stated that the true reason for war was not to secure Maritime rights, but rather to satisfy the North’s “Agrarian cupidity” or want for land. He stated that Canada seems tempting to Northerners and is (in their eyes) worth going to war for. Although President Madison declared the reason for war being to secure maritime rights, many others were skeptical; the general public in the maritime and commercial region of the United States didn’t want to go to war, as shown in document 5. This contradicts the President’s statement in Document 4 and shows that many in the North wanted to keep positive relations with Britain in order to maintain

The U. S. then proceeded to divide up this land, but settlers could not buy any of it until 1788. Many Americans became restless and decided to go in and settle these lands illegally, not honoring their treaty with the Indians.

The Mexican-American War occurred from 1846 to 1848, and was extremely beneficial to the United States. It marked the first conflict that America was involved in on foreign soil, and had numerous causes and effects. However, the Americans had opposing views on the Mexican War. For example, some Whigs and northerners were very critical, but the majority of Americans favored it. Abraham Lincoln, being an Illinois Congressman at the time, argued against the president to find out the exact spot on the U.S. where American blood was being shed.

The French owned a huge tract of land right next to American soil. Napoleon wanted to hold on to it so that he could build a New France there, but he decided to sell it after realizing it wasn’t happening. He also needed money to keep fighting the British, so he offered it to Jefferson for 15 million dollars. When Jefferson found out about this, he was conflicted. Part of him knew that the Constitution didn’t say anything about the buying of foreign land.

The nineteenth century had plenty to offer for Americans. If exploring the newfound terrain was not enough, settlers in the states dealt with wars going on between--not only foreign countries, but within the United States itself. The United States began their expansion westward. With help from congress, the Corps of Discovery was initiated in 1803 and famous explorers such as Lewis and Clark set out to explore new found terrain west of the Appalachian Mountains (EAH. pg 237). This new found territory was known as the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson, an advocate of westward expansion relentlessly bought the Louisiana Territory from France for fifteen million dollars. Ultimately the purchase of the Louisiana Territory was the first stepping stone for the nation to continue moving west. Many

The American Indians who lived on that land were removed after the deal was made. They didn’t even know of the purchase and being removed from the land where they lived hundreds of years is just wrong. Jefferson also didn’t have the right to buy the land. According to Document 10, it states that “Let’s ignore the fact that an Executive cannot purchase land.” This shows that even though the Executive isn’t allowed to purchase land, Jefferson did it anyway and citizens were against it. The Louisiana Territory wasn’t allowed to be

On April 30th, 1803, a Napoleon Bonaparte of France sold the Unites States President, Thomas Jefferson, 885,000 square miles of territory in North America for $15 million. Congress then wanted to explore this land they had purchases from France and sent out Lewis and Clark to explore the land. President James Polk stated that it was America’s “Manifest Destiny” to settle North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. People of America showed their agreement by pushing the borders of the United States across the Mississippi River and ever westward. The Chinese wanted to come to America for opportunity (jobs, gold, etc.)

The purchase of Alaska was look upon with massive amounts of skepticism, but was still sought after by many Americans. Many people of the U.S. very simply thought the whole idea was foolish and that America could have no use for the land. For example, as far as Russia themselves knew, the land was barren and snowy, void of any known important natural resources, and almost inhabitable at the time. In fact, “Russian settlers in Alaska never numbered more than four hundred” (WB2). But most importantly, it was viewed as a waste of money, priced at 7.2 million dollars. People even began to name the purchase “Seward’s Folly” which became a famous term as time progressed, which was a source of much ridicule for Seward for many years to follow(WB4).

President Lincoln quickly realized that the South's tremendous agricultural wealth represented a significant strategic advantage if they chose to leave the Union and he was forced to suppress what he viewed as an internal insurrection (Surdam, 2001, p. 1). Lincoln was aware that Europe and other countries had become dependent on raw cotton imports from North America and were therefore potential commercial and military allies of the Confederacy. In addition, English aristocracy hoped for a diminution of the power of its greatest naval competitor, the United States, and an end to dreams of democracy in the New World (Woldman, 1952, p. 84-85). Russians were concerned about the breakup of the Union for the opposite reason, since it viewed the commercial competition between the U.S. and Britain as a

Do you know why October 18th, 1867 is an important date for Alaska? Do you know how much the United States bought the Alaskan Territory from Russia? Does it fascinate you to know how much money the United States paid per acre? Well although Alaska has a very short history compared to the rest of the contiguous United States, it has a very interesting history. The reason for that is because it was one of the very last states brought into the Union and recognized as “one of their own”. As most of people know, Alaska can be a really cold and brutal place to live. Depending on where you live in Alaska, the climate can differentiate from about 8°F - 58°F. All around Alaska, there are many points of interest. You will discover lots of important