Louisiana Purchase
- 1803: United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River from France
- United States acquired land from the Mississippi River to the beginning Rocky Mountains
- New land posed problem for United States because new territories' slave status under debate (“Louisiana Purchase”)
Missouri Compromise
- Missouri applied to join the Union as slave state--delicate balance between free and slave states threatened
- Congress passed Missouri Compromise in 1820: Missouri entered Union as slave state, but passed amendment that created boundary across former Louisiana territory that separated free and slave states (“Missouri Compromise”)
- Directly lead to the Compromise of 1850