Northwest Territory: Encyclopedia II - Northwest Territory - History

Northwest Territory - History

European exploration of the region began with French fur traders in the seventeenth century. The French explorer Jean Nicolet was the first recorded entry into the region in 1634. The French exercised control from a number of widely separated posts throughout the region. France ceded the territory to Britain in the Treaty of Paris (1763) which ended the French and Indian Wars.

However, facing armed opposition by Native Americans (see Pontiac's Rebellion), the British issued the Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited white settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains in an attempt to appease the Native Americans. But this action angered American colonists interested in expansion and was a contributing factor to the American Revolution.

Britain ceded the area north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War with the Treaty of Paris (1783), but the British continued to maintain a presence in the region for many years. In the Jay Treaty of 1795, British subjects agreed to leave the Great Lakes region, but that treaty was never fully implemented. The United States' claim to the region was not fully realized until the 1814 Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812.

Several states (Virginia, Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut) had competing claims on the territory. Other states, such as Maryland, refused to ratitify the U.S. Constitution so long as these states were allowed to keep their western territory, fearing that those states could continue to grow and tip the balance of power in their favor under the proposed system of federal government. As a concession in order to obtain ratification, these states ceded their claims on the territory to the U.S. government: New York in 1780, Virginia in 1784, Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1785. So the majority of the territory became public domain land owned by the U.S. government. Virginia and Connecticut reserved the land of two areas to use as compensation to military veterans: The Virginia Military District and the Connecticut Western Reserve. In this way, the United States included territory and people outside any of the states.

The Land Ordinance of 1785 established a standardized system for surveying the land into saleable lots, although Ohio had already been partially surveyed several times using different methods, resulting in a patchwork of land surveys in Ohio. The rest of the Northwest Territory was divided into roughly uniform square townships and sections, which facilitated land sales and development.

Difficulties with Native American tribes and with British trading outposts presented continuing obstacles for American expansion until military campaigns of Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne against the Native Americans culminated with victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville of 1795. Jay's Treaty in 1794 temporarily helped to smooth relations with British traders in the region, where British citizens outnumbered American citizens throughout the 1780s. Ongoing disputes with the British over the region was a contributing factor to the War of 1812. Britain irrevocably ceded claim to the Northwest Territory with the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.

When the territory was created, it was inhabited by about 45,000 Native Americans and 2,000 traders, mostly French and British. Officially, American settlement began at Marietta, Ohio on April 7, 1788. Arthur St. Clair formally established the government on July 15, 1788 at Marietta. His original plan called for the organization of five initial counties: Washington (Ohio east of the Scioto River), Hamilton (Ohio between the Scioto and the Miami Rivers), Knox (Indiana and eastern Illinois), St. Clair (Illinois and Wisconsin), and Wayne (Michigan).

In 1800 the Indiana Territory was carved out, reducing the Northwest Territory to the size of Ohio, to prepare for statehood. The Northwest Territory went out of existence when Ohio was admitted as a state on March 1, 1803.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki