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west of the Mississippi River. This
area, called Louisiana after King Louis
XIV, included present-day Kansas.
Territorial disputes with Great Britain,
however, led to the outbreak of the
French and Indian War in 1754. In
order to
thwart
Great Britain, France
ceded all of this territory, including
Kansas, to its ally Spain in 1762.
France regained the area from
Spain in 1800. Three years later, how-
ever, the United States bought it from
the French as part of the Louisiana
Purchase. President Thomas Jefferson
soon ordered an expedition into the
newly acquired lands. Captain
Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant
William Clark were put in charge.
Between 1804 and 1806, they covered
more than 8,000 miles (12,875 km).
Their goal was to explore and map the
territory, chart a route westward to the
Pacific Ocean, and develop trade rela-
tions with local Indian tribes.
Lewis and Clark first reached
Kansas in June of 1804—just over a
month into their expedition. They
camped at the
confluence
of the
Kansas and Missouri rivers, along
what today is Kansas’s northeastern
border. On July 4, they celebrated
Independence Day in present-day
17
Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska
Lewis and Clark spent a short time in Kansas
during their 1804–06 exploration of the
Louisiana Purchase. In their notes, they wrote
about the abundance of game and the beauty
of the prairie.The spot where their group origi-
nally camped for several days, Kaw Point, is
near present-day Kansas City.