Q 01/05

Which president, in office from 1801, approved the Louisiana Purchase after first seeking only a single port city?

A) Andrew Jackson

B) Thomas Jefferson

C) James Madison

D) George Washington

Answer · why

B) Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson soon sent expeditions to chart the new land, whose boundaries no treaty had ever defined.

Q 02/05

Which French leader sold the Louisiana Purchase lands to the United States while expecting a new war with Britain?

A) Napoleon Bonaparte

B) King Charles X

C) Maximilien Robespierre

D) Marquis de Lafayette

Answer · why

A) Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon Bonaparte had regained Louisiana only in 1800, trading lands in Tuscany for it as part of a plan to rebuild a French empire in North America.

Q 03/05

What price did the United States pay France for the Louisiana Purchase, a sum it had to borrow from European banks?

A) $3 million

B) $7 million

C) $15 million

D) $45 million

Answer · why

C) $15 million

$15 million worked out to less than three cents an acre. The young republic had no such sum in its treasury, so it borrowed at six percent interest.

Q 04/05

What did the Louisiana Purchase, which added about 828,000 square miles, do to the overall size of the United States?

A) Grew it by a tenth

B) Grew it by a quarter

C) Nearly tripled it

D) Nearly doubled it

Answer · why

D) Nearly doubled it

The deal nearly doubled it, and land from fifteen present-day states was eventually carved out of the new territory.

Q 05/05

Which two army officers led the Corps of Discovery across the Louisiana Purchase and on to the Pacific Ocean in 1805?

A) Lewis and Clark

B) Frémont and Carson

C) Powell and Hayden

D) Bridger and Colter

Answer · why

A) Lewis and Clark

Lewis and Clark lost only one man on the whole journey, a sergeant who died of apparent appendicitis three months after setting out.