Missouri summary

Missouri Compromise, (1820), in U.S. history, measure worked out between the North and the South and passed by the U.S. Congress that allowed for admission of Missouri as the 24th state (1821). It marked the beginning of the prolonged sectional conflict over the extension of slavery that led to the

Louisiana Purchase, western half of the Mississippi River basin purchased in 1803 from France by the United States; at less than three cents per acre for 828,000 square miles (2,144,520 square km), it was the greatest land bargain in U.S. history. The purchase doubled the size of the United States,

Kansas City, city, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties, western Missouri, U.S. Located on the Missouri River at the confluence with the Kansas River, the city is contiguous with Kansas City, Kansas, forming part of a large urban complex that also includes Leavenworth, Olathe, Overland Park, Prairie

St. Louis, city, adjacent to but independent of St. Louis county, east-central Missouri, U.S. It lies on the west bank of the Mississippi River (bridged there at several points) opposite East St. Louis, Illinois, just south of the confluence of the Missouri River. The city’s boundaries have