1. Lewis and Clark and the “Corps of Discovery”

2. Manifest Destiny - the belief that the United States has the right & duty to expand to the Pacific Ocean

3. Lewis and Clark and the “Corps of Discovery”
The Louisiana Purchase doubled
the size of the United States in 1803.

4. Lewis and Clark and the “Corps of Discovery”
Jefferson chose Meriwether Lewis, who asked his former army commander, William Clark, to assist.

5. In May 1804, Lewis and Clark and the “Corps of Discovery” (45 men, including York, an enslaved African American who had been Clark’s companion since boyhood) started up the
Missouri River from St. Louis (Missouri Territory)

6. During the first winter (1804), they stayed in present-day North Dakota with the Mandan Indians.
Here they met Sacagawea, a Shoshone Indian, and her French Canadian husband. They agreed to go along as guides through the Rocky Mountains and interpreters for other Indian tribes.

7. Lewis and Clark meet Sacagawea.

8. Sacagawea agrees to take the expedition across the Rocky Mountains.

9. In November 1805, the explorers reached the Pacific Ocean
In November 1805, the explorers reached the Pacific Ocean. The return trip to St. Louis took another year (arrived home in September 1806).

10. The “Corps of Discovery” began in May 1804 from St. Louis, Missouri...

11. November 1805: Clark writes in his journal...
“Ocean in View…O the Joy!”
Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia

12. Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia (1905)
Two main tasks for the expedition:
Explore the Louisiana Territory
Map a route to the Pacific Ocean
Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia (1905)

13. Lewis and Clark and the “Corps of Discovery”
A black Newfoundland dog
Kansas City, MO
Statue (right) honoring York (Clark’s slave) and Seaman (Lewis’s dog).

14. Winter 1804: Stayed in North Dakota with the Mandan Indians.
Reproduction of the Jefferson Peace Medal given by Lewis and Clark to tribal leaders
Winter 1804: Stayed in North Dakota with the Mandan Indians.

15. The return trip to St. Louis took another
year—they arrived in September 1806.

16. Achievements of the Lewis and Clark Expedition:
Reported on climate in regions they visited.
Described plants and animals they saw.
Explored large area of Louisiana Purchase.
Created map of route to the Pacific Ocean.
Gathered information about Native Americans they met along the way.

17. Also, Zebulon Pike explored the upper Mississippi River and the Southwest region of the continent. Both expeditions made further exploration and settlement of the West and Southwest possible.