Louisiana Purchase
Explore the huge land the United States bought from France in 1803.
Louisiana Purchase is a U.S. history map game about the 1803 deal in which the United States bought a vast area of land from France. A state is highlighted on a map and the child decides whether it had land in the purchase. Because the deal did not follow today's state lines, shading shows which states were mostly inside and which only partly.
Questions also cover the people and numbers behind the deal: Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Bonaparte, the price of 15 million dollars, and Lewis and Clark with Sacagawea. Children learn why Jefferson wanted New Orleans and the Mississippi River open for trade, and that Native nations already lived on the land.
What children practice
- Tell which of today's states had land in the purchase
- Know that the land was bought from France in 1803
- Name Jefferson, Napoleon, Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea in context
- Use the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains as edges
- Separate states mostly inside the purchase from states only partly inside
- Understand that Native nations already lived on the land
Levels
- Level 1: Yes or no
- Level 2: Tap a state
- Level 3: Who and when
- Level 4: Rivers and edges
- Level 5: All or part
- Level 6: Mixed review
How it works
- Level 1 is yes or no on a highlighted state, and level 2 asks the child to tap states on the map.
- Level 3 covers who, when and how much, and level 4 covers rivers and edges.
- Level 5 asks whether a state was all or part of the purchase, and level 6 is a mixed review.
- Wrong answers can be retried, and the speaker button reads each question aloud.
Best for: A good fit for grades 4 to 8 when a child is studying early American history and the growth of the country.
Tip for parents: Find the Mississippi River on a map and trace west to the Rocky Mountains with a finger. Seeing that the purchase covered much of the middle of the country helps the facts hang together.
Questions parents ask
Does the game say how much of each state was bought?
No fractions are given. States are shaded dark when the whole state or nearly all of it was in the purchase, and light when only part was. That keeps the idea simple and avoids false precision.
Are the old borders drawn accurately?
The purchase did not follow modern state lines, so today's states stand in for it, and the game only asks about states where the answer is clear. Children learn the big picture, not exact boundary lines.
How does this connect to Westward Expansion?
The Louisiana Purchase is the first big addition in the story of how the country grew. Westward Expansion continues with Texas, Oregon, the Mexican Cession and Alaska, plus trails, the Gold Rush and the railroad.
Ready to try it?
Louisiana Purchase is free with a parent account. A parent adds a child profile, and the child's progress is saved.