The History Of North America Vol 8

Author : Curtis M. Geer
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330417355
Total Pages : 561 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (173 download)

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Download or read book The History of North America, Vol. 8 written by Curtis M. Geer and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-26 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The History of North America, Vol. 8: The Louisiana Purchase and the Westward Movement The United States owes to France two of her most precious possessions: the first, independence; the second, the Louisiana Purchase. The winning of the first has in The History of North America been chronicled in the volume entitled The Revolution; the gaining of the second is set forth in the volume now before us. The imperial expanse of fertile country stretching from the Mississippi Delta to the borders of what is now Canada was a domain of which Spain and France, by whom it had been held, knew little. True, their trappers and traders had stations throughout it, and expeditions now and again penetrated its fastnesses, even in the early days before the Western settlements of the United States had waxed lusty and prosperous and burdened the Father of Waters with their productions in transit to the town of New Orleans. But the Spanish, after the French, and the French again after the Spanish, though in truth the later French occupation was short, made little avail of the riches at their hands; in fact, they grasped only and seemingly cared more to prevent others from profiting by the country to the westward of the Mississippi than to use it themselves. But this policy, this opposition to American development, was destined to operate to the advantage of the new republic; for it forced it to take action destined to put an end to the intolerable situation by which the entire portion of its territory west of the Alleghanies was compelled to forego the free use of its natural outlet to the worlds commerce, - the Mississippi River. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.