The Northwest territory had been acquired by…
April 1784 CE
Great Britain had taken over the Ohio Country, as its eastern portion is known, but a few months later had closed it to new European settlement by the Royal Proclamation of 1763.
The Crown had tried to restrict settlement of the thirteen colonies between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, which raised colonial tensions among those who wanted to move west.
With the colonials' victory in the American Revolutionary War and signing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the United States claimed the territory, as well as the areas south of the Ohio.
The territories are subject to overlapping and conflicting claims of the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and Virginia dating from their colonial past.
The British will be active in some of the border areas until after the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812.
The region has long been desired for expansion by colonists.
The states are encouraged to settle their claims by the US government's de facto opening of the area to settlement following the defeat of Great Britain.
In 1784, Thomas Jefferson, a delegate from Virginia, proposes that the states should relinquish their particular claims to all the territory west of the Appalachians, and the area should be divided into new states of the Union.
Jefferson's proposal to create a federal domain through state cessions of western lands is derived from earlier proposals dating back to 1776 and debates about the Articles of Confederation.
Jefferson proposes creating ten roughly rectangular states from the territory, and suggests names for the new states: Cherronesus, Sylvania, Assenisipia, Illinoia, Metropotamia, Polypotamia, Pelisipia, Washington, Michigania and Saratoga.
The Congress of the Confederation modifies the proposal, passing it as the Land Ordinance of 1784. This ordinance establishes the example that will become the basis for the Northwest Ordinance three years later.
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Ohio Country
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Illinois Country
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Virginia, Commonwealth of (U.S.A.)
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United States of America (US, USA) (Philadelphia PA)
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Connecticut, State of (U.S.A.)
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New York, independent state of
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Massachusetts, Commonwealth of (U.S.A.)
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Northwest Territory (U.S.A.)
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