What factors prompted Jefferson to sponsor the Lewis and Clark expedition?

First of all, please note that your textbook may give
certain factors that you are supposed to give back as an answer to this question.  This
answer is not based on your textbook and may not be "right" when compared to that
book.

There were a couple of different kinds of reasons why
Jefferson wanted the expedition to
happen.

• Economic reasons.  He wanted to be able
  to trade with Indian tribes.  Perhaps more importantly, he was hoping to find a water
  route to the Pacific Ocean so that trade from East to West could happen more
  easily.


• Intellectual reasons.  Jefferson was a scientist
  of sorts who was very interested in a variety of things.  One of the things he wanted to
  know was more or less everything about the rest of the continent.  He wanted to know
  about the people and the plants and the animals and the geography of the rest of this
  "unexplored" continent.