Final answer:
In the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, an acre of land roughly cost just under 3 cents, calculated by dividing the total cost of $15 million by the acreage of over 529 million acres. This acquisition doubled the size of the United States.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 stands as a monumental event in American history, characterized by President Thomas Jefferson's vision of an agrarian republic. The purchase price of $15 million for the vast territory was considered a bargain, working out to well under a dollar per acre. Precisely, the acquired land was about 828,000 square miles, which translates to over 529 million acres. To calculate the cost per acre, we divide the total cost by the number of acres.
Calculation:
$15,000,000 (total cost) รท 529,000,000 acres = approximately $0.028 per acre.
Thus, during the Louisiana Purchase, an acre of land roughly cost just under 3 cents. This expansion effectively doubled the size of the United States at the time, with the territory extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. The enormity of the deal and the incredibly low price per acre underscore how significant this acquisition was, both in terms of geographical expansion and economic opportunity.