AP U.S. History 1.3 Period 4: 1800-1848

All right. Are we reading?

Expanding government and regulation into the

Louisiana territory proved challenging

for all of the following reasons except... what?

And here are your potential answers.

[ mumbles ]

[ mumbling continues ]

All right, well what exactly is this question asking?

Well, if we look at the image provided,

we see that huge swath of land

that the United States annexed with the Louisiana Purchase.

So, because the country's size was nearly doubled,

there were bound to be some problems.

We just need to figure out which of these answers

wasn't a challenge the U.S. encountered

during the expansion.

Well, did the government have expansion challenges because of

A - the diversity of ethnicities and religions in the region?

Well, challenges might even be putting it mildly.

That new territory? Yeah, it was acquired from France,

but before that, it had been in Spanish hands,

so most of the residents spoke a language other than English

and were Catholic, not Protestant.

Looks like the melting pot just got a whole lot meltier.

Could one of the issues have been B -

the presence of both freed and current slaves?

Oh, you bet.

Well, the diversity of inhabitants in the region

also meant diversity in their feelings toward slavery.

So freed and current slaves were

mixed in with the population now pledging allegiance

to the American flag.

So that knocks out B, as well.

Did the expansion of government encounter C -

continuing confrontations with the Native American populations?

Well, continuing down the not-so-stellar

track record of unhappy relationships with Native populations,

the U.S. continued warring with Native

Americans in the Territory.

Can't teach an old dog new, more humane tricks, right?

Yeah, so it's a no-go on C.

Which means the government didn't have a problem with D -

the region's lack of transportation networks.

Look at that map again. See the eastern border? Right here.

That's the Mississippi River.

In fact, the Louisiana Purchase included a

vast set of natural transportation networks,

many of which flowed into the Mississippi

and down to the port of New Orleans.

So that means D is the right answer.

And it looks like a river really did run through it.

[ singing ] Old Man River

[ singing ] Kept on rollin' along

Or something like that. Yeah.