The Lewis and Clark Expedition had a very significant influence on the westward expansion of the United States. The meticulous attention to detail in journaling exercised by Meriweather Lewis and other participants in the expedition constituted an invaluable source of information on the physical geography, climates, and animal species of the vast landscapes that extended far beyond the original American colonies. President Thomas Jefferson, who had commissioned the expedition, was keenly interested in the territories acquired as part of the Louisiana Purchase, and the information acquired by the expedition’s members was instrumental in filling in the blanks left from the region’s previous French owners.
Westward expansion was not without its risks. Potentially hostile (in terms of their efforts at defending their ancestral tribal lands) indigenous tribes posed a near-constant threat, as did disease, harsh weather conditions, and enormous amounts of acreage yet-to-be developed for commercial and military purposes. Jefferson understood that expansion and consolidation of newly-acquired territories required in-depth knowledge of the terrain if significant numbers of pioneers were to reach and settle distant outposts. The Lewis and Clark Expedition provided that knowledge. The explorers scouted favorable routes for those who would follow and provided copious insights into the fauna/flora and wild game that would help to sustain migrants. They mapped out lakes, rivers, and streams and developed a vital sense of what paths would likely prove optimal. That the principal objective of the expedition was precisely the identification of such landmarks for eventual exploitation was established by President Jefferson in his June 20, 1803 correspondence to Lewis:
The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it's course & communication with the water of the Pacific ocean may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce.
That Jefferson fully intended the expedition’s data and insights to be employed for the purpose of westward expansion of the United States was further evident in his letter to Lewis:
Your observations are to be taken with great pains & accuracy to be entered distinctly, & intelligibly for others as well as yourself, to comprehend all the elements necessary, with the aid of the usual tables to fix the latitude & longitude of the places at which they were taken, & are to be rendered to the war office, for the purpose of having the calculations made concurrently by proper persons within the U.S.
Reading the journals of Meriweather Lewis, as well as those maintained by other members of the expedition, one cannot help but be impressed by the levels of detail provided. The journals were intended to be, and were in fact, a road map to westward expansion, and their significance cannot be exaggerated.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson soon after the Louisiana Purchase. The administration was interested in mapping out the new acquisition and discovering what the territory had to offer. The expedition began...
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around St. Louis and reached the Pacific coast.
The expedition had an impact on Westward Expansion because it was the first expedition to explore the western part of the United States.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition established the American presence in the western part of the region, giving the US the opportunity to claim and explore the region. The expedition discovered the route to reach the Pacific Ocean and built forts to serve as markers and lodges.
Additionally, the expedition established cordial contact with native Indian tribes, which enabled American settlement during Westward Expansion. The discoveries made also proved that the area was habitable. Food would be available for the settlers through farming, hunting, and livestock-keeping. Water was also available given the springs and rivers in the area.
Thus, the expedition played an important role in informing the settlers about the opportunities that were available in the West.
After the United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France, President Jefferson wanted to discover as much as he could about the territory we just received. Thus, he sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition to learn about the land.
Lewis and Clark discovered many things on the trip. They learned about the geography of the area. From this information, accurate maps of the region were developed. They learned that there were gaps in the Rocky Mountains that made it possible to reach the Pacific Ocean. They also learned about the people who lived in the area. They encountered some Native American groups on their voyage. They also discovered scientific and climatic information about the region.
This information was important in furthering our expansion to the West. Because of the information they gathered and the maps that were developed, people had a route to follow. Many people took the Oregon Trail as they headed to the West. They also knew what to expect regarding the weather and the climate of the region. This helped them take the proper supplies they would need for their journey. People knew they might encounter Native Americans who may or who may not be friendly to them. The information they learned was very valuable in helping our country expand westward in the early 1800s.
Further Reading
How did the Lewis and Clark expedition impact America?
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, only a fraction of what is now the United States was actually part of this country. Spain and France both owned a significant portion of land in North America, which was not ideal for the fledgling United States.
A few years after the Louisiana territory was acquired by the United States, Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to not only map out the region, but to also establish a route to the Pacific Ocean. Jefferson also hoped that the expedition would establish a powerful American presence in the west, which would deter any European invasions and ideally kick the Spanish out of North America. From 1804 to 1806, Lewis and Clark, aided by the Native American tribes of the west and especially their guide Sacagawea, gained invaluable information not only about the geography of the region but also the flora and fauna, as well as the Native American tribes who lived there and the most effective routes to the Pacific Ocean.
The success of their expedition marked the beginning of the American push westward.
How did the Lewis and Clark expedition impact America?
The Lewis and Clark expedition impacted the United States of America profoundly. Thomas Jefferson and others who had led the effort to create a new nation in the former British colonies had long sought to expand the nation’s nascent borders. Very formidable obstacles stood in their way, namely the presence of the French and the fact that little was known about the land purchased from the French, let alone what lay beyond it. The first obstacle was effectively removed when Jefferson was elected president and successfully negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States and pushed its western-most boundaries hundreds of miles further out. The second obstacle was addressed through the commissioning of the expedition led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and the man he selected to accompany him as co-leader of the journey, William Clark. Together, and with considerable assistance from their Native American guide Sacagawea, and from Native tribes along the way, they succeeded in exploring much of the continent. They arrived at the Pacific Northwest in November 1805 two and a quarter years after their departure.
The impact of the Lewis and Clark expedition involved the considerable knowledge the explorers gained during the course of their journey regarding the geographic and topologic features of the terrain and of the peoples who populated it – in effect, the Native tribes who had proved so helpful in facilitating the group’s advance across the continent. With the knowledge accumulated during the expedition, President Jefferson was better able to make informed decisions regarding the westward expansion of the United States.
Further Reading
What impact did the Lewis and Clark expedition have on developing the United States west of the Mississippi River?
The Lewis and Clark Expedition had an enormous impact on American westward expansion. Arguments have been advanced that President Jefferson’s dispatch of his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis, along with Captain William Clark, a noted explorer and soldier, on a journey to observe, note, and map the vast territories beyond the Mississippi River was motivated more by the president’s need to better understand the state of the US Army at its outermost stations. However, Lewis’s participation in the journey to the Pacific provided such a wealth of detail about virtually every facet of geography and nature that the subsequent mass migration of Americans westward was rendered considerably more viable. The expedition named for these two men produced voluminous data on many things either previously unseen or undocumented (by European and/or American eyes) that warrants continued attention today. Note in the following passage from Lewis’s journals his description of just one particular type of bird:
The Black woodpecker which I have frequently mentioned and which is found in most parts of the roky Mountains as well as the Western and S. W. mountains, I had never an opportunity of examining until a few days since when we killed and preserved several of them. this bird is about the size of the lark woodpecker or the turtle dove, tho' it's wings are longer than either of those birds. the beak is black, one inch long, reather wide at the base, somewhat curved, and sharply pointed; the chaps are of equal length. around the base of the beak including the eye and a small part of the throat is of a fine crimson red.
This is one paragraph in the thousands of pages of notes, illustrations and maps produced by Lewis and Clark during their two-year journey. Lewis’s description of the “black woodpecker” is not an anomaly; it is, rather, illustrative of the journals’ contents. Notes from May 8, 1806 provide useful insights on the types of wild game available for sustenance:
by 11 A.M. all our hunters returned, Drewyer and Cruzatte brought each a deer, Collins wounded another which my dog caught at a little distance from the camp. our stock of provision now consisted of 4 deer and the remnant of the horse which we killed at Colter's Creek. Sheilds killed a duck of an uncommon kind. the head beak and wing of which I preserved.
The journals of Lewis and Clark are an invaluable historical record. Their contemporaneous use by Jefferson and others were instrumental in convincing leaders of the young nation that the territories beyond the Mississippi were worth further exploration and, as importantly, further occupation. That Jefferson fully intended the expedition to provide the kinds of information essential for future settlement is evident in the instructions he provided the two officers before their departure. In his letter to Lewis detailing the types of information he wanted collected, Jefferson included the following passage:
And considering the interest which every nation has in extending & strengthening the authority of reason & justice among the people around them, it will be useful to acquire what knolege you can of the state of morality, religion & information among them, as it may better enable those who endeavor to civilize & instruct them, to adapt their measures to the existing notions & practises of those on whom they are to operate.
That is an informative instruction from the president to his emissary to the uncharted territories beyond the then-existing borders of the United States. It strongly suggests an interest in establishing a long-term presence in those territories.
What impact did the Lewis and Clark expedition have on developing the United States west of the Mississippi River?
The main effect of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was to stimulate interest in the region west of the Mississippi. Their descriptions of the fauna of the region in particular piqued the interest of fur traders, who poured into the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest in droves in the twenty or so years following the expedition. Of course, the interests of fur-trading companies were also furthered by the Louisiana Purchase, which gave the United States possession of most of the region explored by the expedition. Their exploration efforts also enabled the United States to claim the disputed Pacific Northwest, as Lewis and Clark had been to the Pacific Ocean. Possession of the region was finally settled in the 1840s. The fact that all of these developments were disastrous for Indian peoples along their route—from the Mandan along the Missouri to the Nez Perce in the Pacific Northwest—should go without saying. But the Lewis and Clark Expedition was very important in promoting the growth and development of the United States in the trans-Mississippi West.
What impact did the Lewis and Clark expedition have on developing the United States west of the Mississippi River?
Besides simply giving us a journal to follow which described what we would find out West in terms of flora and fauna (plants and animals), but helped us to know which Native tribes were friendly and which were hostile, what the safest routes were and simply the fact that it was possible to reach the West overland and live to tell the tale was something they contributed.
By exploring the Pacific Northwest, they also inadvertently claimed it for the United States, which led to increased settlement later, especially in present day Oregon through the Oregon Trail.
What impact did the Lewis and Clark expedition have on developing the United States west of the Mississippi River?
Prior to Lewis and Clark's journey, the American West was largely unexplored and unknown. Their encounter with Sacajewea and their findings along their route would serve as the basis for eventual westward expansion and Americans' newfound fascination with homesteading west of the Mississippi River.
Without the voyages of Lewis and Clark, the United States might have remained unaware about life and land in the western half of our country, and the displacement of Native Americans there might never have occurred.
What impact did the Lewis and Clark expedition have on developing the United States west of the Mississippi River?
There are two main ways in which the Lewis and Clark expedition impacted the development of the West.
First, the expedition made traders and trappers more interested in the West. The expedition brought back reports that convinced the traders and trappers that there was money to be made by trading with the Indians or by trapping furs on their own.
Second, the expedition and the reaction to it helped to give the US a claim to the Oregon country. Since Americans were the first to extensively explore the area, they had a strong claim to it. This helped the US get Oregon in the 1840s, thus helping to ensure a stream of pioneers heading west.