Traveling The Santa Fe Trail

Traveling The Santa Fe Trail — page 1
Chapter 1 Trade Routes From Sea to Shining Sea Only 20 years after it became independent the United States gained a region that doubled the country’s size And barely 50 years later it reached across immense plains and towering mountain ranges to touch the Pacific Ocean How it grew so fast in such a short time is still an amazing tale One thing that promoted this growth was the strong desire of people to trade with each other When the year 1803 began the United States of America had only 17 states and one large territory surrounding the Great Lakes Most of the five and a half million Americans lived along the eastern edge of a huge undeveloped continent Georgia was the southernmost state and the western border of the country was the Mississippi River But by the end of 1803 President Thomas Jefferson had purchased the vast and unknown Louisiana GADSDEN PURCHASE 1853 OCEAN PACIFIC OREGON TERRITORY 1846 CEDED BY MEXICO 1848 4 4