WI: Lewis and Clark Expedition intercepted by the Spanish?

My first thought is the supporters of the Louisiana Purchase & probably Jefferson himself, would double efforts to send expeditions into the new Territory. So, in the next year or three larger & better armed groups would be headed west. The plans to establish US Army posts in the territory would be accelerated as well. Another likely action is diplomatic 'discussion' as the Spanish & US governments shout about each others trespass.

In the longer run the dispute is likely tho not certainly to be settled without much actual violence. There were several border disputes between the US and Britain settled without war, or even a skirmish. However, a few decades later when the US settlers start lapping across the Louisiana/New Spain border then we have the US/Mexican war on schedule.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
My first thought is the supporters of the Louisiana Purchase & probably Jefferson himself, would double efforts to send expeditions into the new Territory. So, in the next year or three larger & better armed groups would be headed west. The plans to establish US Army posts in the territory would be accelerated as well. Another likely action is diplomatic 'discussion' as the Spanish & US governments shout about each others trespass.

This assumes that the Americans ever find out what happened. The Spanish would probably pay off some Indians - perhaps the Lakota - to do the job for them. Any word that ever gets back to Washington would be nothing but easily denied rumor and hearsay.

"Expedition? What expedition?"
 

Driftless

Donor
This assumes that the Americans ever find out what happened. The Spanish would probably pay off some Indians - perhaps the Lakota - to do the job for them. Any word that ever gets back to Washington would be nothing but easily denied rumor and hearsay.

"Expedition? What expedition?"

My first thought is the supporters of the Louisiana Purchase & probably Jefferson himself, would double efforts to send expeditions into the new Territory. So, in the next year or three larger & better armed groups would be headed west. The plans to establish US Army posts in the territory would be accelerated as well. Another likely action is diplomatic 'discussion' as the Spanish & US governments shout about each others trespass.

I'll flip the sequence of the two posts...

"If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.." There would be explorers & settlers crossing the Mississippi and up the Missouri in short order - official or otherwise. On the northern plains and mountains: "Spanish, what Spanish?"
 

TFSmith121

Banned
The Spanish actually did encounter Pike's 1806 expedition

So I remember learning in US history that the Spanish viewed the expedition as a threat to their posessions in the west and sent expedition in an attempt to intercept them. What if Lewis and Clark and intercepted by the Spanish?

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24290

http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/lewisclark/foreignreaction.html

http://www.lewis-clark.org/article/752


The Spanish actually did encounter Pike's 1806 expedition, and took them under arrest all the way Chihuahua and then released them after several weeks. Not really a huge event...

Given the weakness of the Spanish military presence in interior North America by the Nineteenth Century, any incident is going to default to something akin to how Pike's men were treated.

Best,
 
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