Louisiana Purchase

This date in Missouri history. The U.S. Senate approves the Louisiana Purchase that adds more than 800,000 acres of land – including what would become Missouri – to more than double the size of the United States.

The treaty that authorized the Louisiana Purchase was signed on this date in Paris.

At a time when the nations of Europe were competing for global control of trade and land, the New World offered the ideal opportunity to fill European coffers and expand their empires. The only problem was that someone already lived here.