Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 201, Lewis and Clark, Part 1.

Last time out, we covered the Louisiana purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.

However, we merely covered the actual transaction between the United States and France.

Over the following episodes, we'll start to get into how this changed the United States and France. Over the following episodes, we'll start to get

into how this changed the United States from the version that was attached the Atlantic seaboard

to one that would dominate North America. This is a key moment in the whole narrative of the podcast,

and I think the best way to get across

what had happened is one simple fact. Jefferson, nor anyone else in the United States

for that matter, had any real idea of what exactly they'd bought. Trying to answer that

was a key priority for Jefferson, which of course brings

us on to Lupus and Clark, which will be the focus of the next few episodes. But to really

explain this, we need to go back a bit. How far back? Well, I think Columbus ought to do it.

Now, if you cast your minds right back to episode zero,

Columbus was trying to find a sea route from Europe to East Asia

that was quicker than taking the route around the Cape of Good Hope.

Instead, of course, Columbus found that the Americas were located inconveniently in the way.

But just because there was a continent there, that didn't mean there wasn't a way to Asia.

It took a bit of looking, but in 1520, Magellan found a way around South America through the Strait of Magellan, which was

really fortunate because I'm sure he'd have been very embarrassed to have gotten there and

found out that the Strait was named after somebody else.

The South American route became one of the main arteries of global trade, but it was a very dangerous route and a long one.

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