Louisiana Purchase
Also called: Louisiana Purchase 1803 · Topic: Settler Colonialism: Native Peoples of America and Australia · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Displacing Indigenous Peoples"
Meaning
The Louisiana Purchase was the USA's purchase of a huge stretch of land from France in 1803. The USA began at the end of the eighteenth century as a fraction of its present size. Over the next hundred years it grew to its full size. It bought Louisiana from France and Alaska from Russia, and it won much of the south in war from Mexico. Nobody thought it necessary to ask the native peoples who lived on these lands.
Example
After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the western 'frontier' (the edge of settled land) moved further west. Native peoples were pushed back along with it.
Don't confuse with
- Alaska purchase: the USA bought Alaska from Russia, not from France.