Answer:
To explore the vast louisiana territory.
Explanation:
In 1800 Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States, at that time the nation occupied an area of approximately 1600 kilometers from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River on the west side and the Great Lakes to the north to the Gulf of Mexico to the south.
The roads were very bad at this time, the rivers, therefore, were the favorite routes to trade. In 1803 Jefferson doubled the size of the United States by buying Louisiana from the French for the price of $ 15 million. The United States now had access to the port of New Orleans and the Wild West, beyond the Mississippi.
Thomas Jefferson assigned the exploration of these new lands to Meriwether Lewis, his personal secretary since 1801. His goal was to find a river path that connected east and west. Lewis showed his genius by choosing his friend William Clark for his fantastic adventure. Clark was four years older than Lewis, who was an introvert dreamer and intellectual, while Clark was the opposite: a strong, pragmatic man with a lot of judgment.
