Timeline of World, National, Regional and Local Historical Events Relevant to the
Growth and Development of the Inland Northwest
Development of Territories
to States
“Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrants.” - James Madison
1774: The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and drew up a list of grievances to present to
the king of England.
1775: The American Revolution (the Revolutionary War) began.
1776: The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on the 2nd of August. It
also authorized each of the 13 colonies to form local governments. Maryland, Delaware, New Hampshire,
Pennsylvania, North Carolina and South Carolina began writing state constitutions.
1777: The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation, which was the first governing
document of the United States of America. It provided for a loose union of states and a weak central
government.
1781: The Articles of Confederation were ratified into law on March 1. Ratification had been delayed until
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1783: The Treaty of Paris was signed by Great Britain and the United States on September 3rd. This
formally ended the Revolutionary War. Under the terms of the treaty, Great Britain ceded Florida to Spain
and all its remaining territory as far as the Mississippi River to the United States.
1784: The first land ordinance following the formation of the United States was passed. This ordinance,
proposed by Thomas Jefferson, established the territory ceded by Great Britain to the United States that
lay west of the original 13 colonies and north of the Ohio River (known as the Northwest Territory) would
remain part of the United States and subject to its central government. Before the war, several colonies had
laid extensive and often overlapping claims to these lands, which were subsequently ceded to the United
States. The ordinance divided the territory into self-governing districts and set population requirements for
statehood. Land ordinances in 1785 and 1787 quickly supplanted this one. No new states were admitted
under the Ordinance of 1784.
1785: John Adams was sent as the American ambassador to Britain even though England refused to send
an ambassador to the U.S. He spent the next three years trying without success to settle problems regarding
the existence of a string of British forts along the Canadian border, prewar debts owed to British creditors,
postwar American treatment of Loyalists, and the closing of the West Indian colonies to American trade.
1785 (May 20): Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which laid the foundations of land policy
in the United States. It established the basis for a systematic means to survey and prepare western lands
for sale. The Articles of Confederation did not allow the federal government to tax its citizens and this
ordinance was seen as a way to raise revenue. It divided the land in the Northwest Territory into 36-squaremile townships, each with a unique description and number. The townships were then subdivided into 36
sections of 640 acres each. Each section was to be sold for no less than $640 (or $1 per acre). Section 16
was reserved for the support and maintenance of public schools. Some other sections were to be provided
to veterans of the American Revolution. However, the ordinance did not resolve other issues related to the
area. Indians failed to relinquish much of the land in the Ohio Country, and squatters continued to flood
the area, refusing to pay the required sums for the land.
1786: Americans suffered from postwar economic depression, including a shortage of currency, high
taxes, nagging creditors, farm foreclosures and bankruptcies. Protests occurred in several states demanding
enactment of paper money and the prevention of debtors from being tried and put in prison.
1786 (August) -1787 (February): Shays’ Rebellion in western Massachusetts. This was an armed
insurrection of small farmers led by ex-Revolutionary War Captain Daniel Shays, who had become a bankrupt
farmer, to protest the plight of debtors and the high taxes levied to pay the war debt. As a result of this
uprising, the state enacted laws easing the economic condition of debtors. Also, due in part to this revolt,
Congress realized the need for a stronger central government and called for a constitutional convention.
1787: Congress endorsed a plan for a convention to revise the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional
Convention convened in Philadelphia in May with George Washington as its presiding officer. Instead
of revising the Articles of Confederation, they voted to create an entirely new, stronger form of national
government, which would be separated into three branches – the legislative, executive and judicial. As a
result, they wrote the Constitution, the final draft of which was signed on September 17 by 39 of the 42
delegates. Ratification by nine of the 13 states was required for the Constitution to take effect. A controversy
ensued following its release to the public. Issues regarding the power of a strong central government were
passionately debated. Two parties were brought into existence as a result: the Federalists favored a strong
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1787 (July 13): Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance, which chartered a government for the Northwest
Territory. The ordinance provided that three to five territories would be formed, each becoming a state when
the population reached 60,000. Over time, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin were created
from the Northwest Territory, with a portion now included in Minnesota. Slavery was banned from this territory. The ordinance had another major effect; it began to establish a system by which states would be formed
and added to the Union. It required official organization of a territory, establishment of self-government, a
specified level of population, and a formal constitution approved by the territory’s residents, which was then
submitted to Congress for approval.
1787 (December 7): Delaware, formerly the Delaware Colony, was the first to ratify the Constitution, thus
becoming the first state to join the Union.
1787 (December 12): Pennsylvania, formerly the Province of Pennsylvania, ratified the Constitution and
became the second state.
1787 (December 18): New Jersey, formerly the Province of New Jersey, ratified the Constitution and
became the third state.
1788 (January 2): Georgia, formerly the Province of Georgia, ratified the Constitution and became the
fourth state.
1788 (January 9): Connecticut, formerly the Connecticut Colony, ratified the Constitution and became
the fifth state.
1788 (February 6): Massachusetts, formerly the Province of Massachusetts Bay, ratified the Constitution
and became the sixth state.
1788 (April 28): Maryland, formerly the Province of Maryland, ratified the Constitution and became the
seventh state.
1788 (May 23): South Carolina, formerly the Province of South Carolina, ratified the Constitution and
became the eighth state.
1788 (June 21): New Hampshire, formerly the Province of New Hampshire, ratified the Constitution and
became the ninth state.
1788 (June 25): Anti-Federalist forces in Virginia, led by Patrick Henry and George Mason, opposed
ratification of the Constitution. Although the Federalists, led by James Madison, finally prevailed in Virginia,
Patrick Henry and the Anti-Federalists were instrumental in the passage of amendments to the Constitution
that became the federal Bill of Rights. Virginia, formerly the Virginia Colony, endorsed ratification (with a
proposed bill of rights and 20 other changes) by a close vote of 89 to 75 and became the tenth state.
1788 (July 2): A formal announcement was made by Congress that the Constitution of the United States
was now in effect, having been ratified by the required nine states. A committee was appointed to begin
the transition from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution.
1788 (July 26): The state of New York, formerly the Province of New York, voted 30 to 27 to endorse
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1789: George Washington was sworn into office as the first president of the United States.
1789 (November 21): North Carolina, formerly the Province of North Carolina, became the twelfth
state.
1790: The Southwest Ordinance was passed, organizing the Southwest Territory (formally known as the
Territory South of the River Ohio). This ordinance was based on the same principles as the Northwest
Ordinance, but slavery was allowed. The territory later became Tennessee.
1790 (May 29): Rhode Island, formerly the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, became
the thirteen state, the last of the original thirteen colonies, to ratify the Constitution.
1791 (March 4): Vermont, formerly the independent Republic of Vermont (established in 1777), became
the 14th state. Prior to becoming a republic, the region had been claimed by both provinces of New York
and New Hampshire.
1791: Enough states ratified the American Bill of Rights to make them part of the constitution. The Bill
of Rights was designed to protect individual rights, such as freedom of speech and religion.
1792 (June 1): Kentucky became the 15th state. It was never a territory but part of Virginia prior to
statehood.
1796 (June 1): Tennessee became the 16th state. It had been the Southwest Territory before statehood.
1798: Mississippi Territory was created out of land ceded by Spain.
1800: Washington D.C. was established as the permanent location for the U.S. capital. Although the capital
had been in numerous temporary locations, at this time it was located in Philadelphia. • The western section
of the Northwest Territory became the Territory of Indiana.
1802: The first Enabling Act was passed by Congress. It authorized any territory organized under the
Ordinance of 1787 to hold a convention, frame a constitution and, thus, prepare for entry into the Union.
1803 (January 18): President Thomas Jefferson secretly asked Congress to fund an expedition to explore
the Mississippi River and beyond in search of a route to the Pacific Ocean. Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson’s
private secretary, began planning the expedition, which formed late in the year.
1803 (March 1): Ohio became the 17th state. It had been part of the Northwest Territory until statehood.
For the first time in the nation’s history, slavery had been banned in a state constitution.
1803: The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was concluded in Paris in which the United States purchased from
France the whole of the Louisiana territory, some 828,000 square miles of land, for about $15 million plus
interest. This huge land acquisition doubled the size of the United States.
1804: The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out with the Corps of Discovery on a two-and-a-half-year expedition
in search of a water route to the Pacific Ocean. They were the first U.S. representatives to explore the
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1805: Indiana Territory was divided; the northern section became the new Michigan Territory. The District
of Louisiana became the Louisiana Territory.
1807: Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and associates were tried for treason on the charge of trying
to separate the western territories from the United States but were acquitted. Meriwether Lewis was named
governor of Louisiana Territory.
1809: Illinois Territory was created from part of the Indiana Territory. • David Thompson, a trader, surveyor
and mapmaker for the North West Company, a Canadian fur trading company, began the first of three trips,
which extended through 1812, to the Pacific Northwest. He was the first to explore the entire length of the
Columbia River and many of its tributaries in search of new fur sources and trade routes. Thompson and
his party were the first documented white men to set foot in the Inland Northwest. The fur-trading posts
they established were the first non-Indian commercial enterprises established in this region.
1812 (April 30): Louisiana became the 18th state. It had been part of the Territory of Orleans, originally
part of the Louisiana Purchase. Following Louisiana’s statehood, the Louisiana Territory was renamed
Missouri Territory to avoid confusion.
1816 (December 11): Indiana became the 19th state. It encompassed the greater part of the Indiana
Territory and had been land received by the United States under the Treaty of Paris. The remainder of the
territory was attached to the Michigan Territory on December 13, 1818.
1817: Alabama Territory was organized from the eastern section of the Mississippi Territory.
1817 (December 10): Mississippi became the 20th state. It had been the Mississippi Territory prior to
statehood.
1818: The boundary between the United States and British North America (Canada) was set at the 49th
parallel west to the crest of the Rockies. The boundary of Oregon Country, which was jointly occupied by
Great Britain and the United States, was at 54o 40’ N.
1818 (December 3): Illinois became the 21st state. It was Illinois Territory prior to statehood and had been
part of the land received under the Treaty of Paris.
1819: Florida was acquired from Spain through the Adams-Onis Treaty and became a territory of the
United States. In the same treaty, the United States acquired Spain’s claims to the Oregon Country north
of the 42nd parallel. • Missouri’s attempt to attain statehood as a slave state created a national crisis and
heated public debate; abolitionists opposed the expansion of slavery.
1819 (December 14): Alabama became the 22nd state. It had been part of the lands acquired under the
Treaty of Paris and the Louisiana Purchase.
1820: The senate passed the Missouri Compromise, which temporarily settled the problem of free versus
slave states in the territories. It allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave
state. The Compromise also forbade slavery in the region covered by the Louisiana Purchase that lay north
of 36o 30’ latitude. The Union was now comprised of 12 slave and 12 free states.
1820 (March 15): Maine became the 23rd state. Prior to statehood, the area had been called the District
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1821 (August 10): Missouri became the 24th state. The land was part of the Louisiana Purchase and was
in the section that became the Louisiana Territory (renamed Missouri Territory after the state of Louisiana
was admitted to the Union). When the state of Missouri was admitted to the Union, the remainder of the
territory (consisting of the present states of Iowa, the Dakotas, and part of Minnesota) became unorganized
territory. In 1834, it became part of the Michigan Territory.
1823: The Monroe Doctrine warned European nations that the Americas were opposed to any future
colonization or intervention and that any such moves would be considered hostile.
1830: The Indian Removal Act passed, giving the president power to move all Indians west of the
Mississippi.
1834: The Indian Intercourse Act established Indian Territory, also referred to as Indian Country, an
unorganized territory. Originally, it primarily encompassed all of the United States territory west of the
Mississippi, except the states of Louisiana and Missouri and the Territory of Arkansas, but as settlers moved
into the area, the territory soon began to systematically be reduced in size.
1836: Dr. Marcus Whitman led the first party of travelers that included white women to cross the North
American continent into the Oregon Country. This was the start of what became a mass migration of settlers
into this region.
1836 (June 15): Arkansas became the 25th state. Arkansas Territory had been formed from the Missouri
Territory in 1819 and included most of what is now Oklahoma, excepting the Oklahoma Panhandle. It was
reduced twice before settling, in 1828, into the present boundaries of Arkansas.
1837 (January 26): Michigan became the 26th state. The Michigan Territory had been formed in 1805
from Indiana Territory and was originally part of the Northwest Territory.
1844: American expansionism was expressed by presidential candidate James K. Polk with the slogan
“Fifty-four Forty or Fight,” asserting the United States’ right to set the northern boundary of the Oregon
Country at the south-ern border of Russian-owned Alaska.
1845 (March 3): Florida became the 27th state. It had been part of the territory acquired from Spain in
1819.
1845 (December 29): Texas became the 28th state. Prior to statehood, it was an independent republic. The
Republic of Texas had won independence from Mexico in 1836 and in February 1845 was annexed to the
United States. The Republic of Texas included the region that became Texas, major parts of New Mexico
and Colorado, and smalls portions of Oklahoma, Kansas and Wyoming.
1846: The Oregon Country was acquired by treaty with Great Britain. The Territory, which covered 285,580
square miles, would become Oregon, Washington, Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming. The treaty
established the northern boundary of the Oregon Country at the 49th parallel.
1846 (December 28): Iowa became the 29th state. It had been the Iowa Territory, originally part of the
Louisiana Purchase.
1848: The Oregon Country officially became the Oregon Territory. The United States acquired the Mexican
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1848 (May 29): Wisconsin became the 30th state. The state was smaller than the territory and the leftover
area continued to be called the Territory of Wisconsin until 1849, when it was incorporated into the Minnesota
Territory. This area had been part of the original Northwest Territory received under the Treaty of Paris.
1850 (September 9): California became the 31st state. It was part of the Mexican Cession acquired in 1848.
It had a military government until December 20, 1849 and then a local civil government. It had never had a
territorial form of government. On the same day California became a state, Utah Territory was organized by
an Act of Congress.
1853: The Gadsden Purchase acquired from Mexico 29,640 square miles of land for $10 million that
would become part of New Mexico and Arizona. The Washington Territory was organized from the Oregon
Territory, and encompassed the region north of the lower Columbia River and the 46th parallel east of the
river and extended to the Continental Divide in Montana. The first draft of the bill to form Washington
Territory named it Columbia Territory, but the name honoring George Washington prevailed.
1858 (May 11): Minnesota became the 32nd state. Minnesota Territory had been part of the Louisiana
Purchase.
1859 (February 14): Oregon became the 33rd state. After Oregon attained statehood, what remained of
the original Oregon Territory (primarily the region that is now southern Idaho) was added to Washington
Territory.
1861: Eleven southern states declared their secession from the United States, largely over the issue of
slavery, and formed the Confederate States of America (also referred to as the Confederacy). The United
States (“The Union”) held that secession was illegal, and refused to recognize the Confederacy. A bitter
war between the Union and the Confederacy ensued (the American Civil War). Until it ended in 1865, the
future of the United States’ solidarity hung in the balance.
1861 (January 29): Kansas became the 34th state. The Kansas Territory had been organized in 1854 and
originally included what became eastern Colorado.
1863: Idaho Territory was formed from Washington Territory, leaving Washington Territory with the
present Washington State boundaries, and Dakota Territory. The original Idaho Territory covered most of
the present-day states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
1863 (June 20): West Virginia became the 35th state. It had been part of Virginia before statehood.
1864: The Montana Territory was created from Idaho Territory. Most of the southeastern area of the Idaho
Territory, which originally was part of the Dakota Territory and added to Idaho Territory in 1863, reverted
back to the Dakota Territory.
1864 (October 31): Nevada became the 36th state. The Nevada Territory had been organized in 1861 from
Utah Territory.
1867 (March 1): Nebraska became the 37th state. The Nebraska Territory had been organized in 1854 and
included much of the original Louisiana Purchase.
1867: The territory of Alaska, about 570,000 square miles of land area, was acquired by a $7.2 million
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1876 (August 1): Colorado became the 38th state. The Colorado Territory had been organized in 1861. It
was originally part of the Louisiana Purchase.
1889 (November 2): North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted as states on the same day and were the
39th and 40th states. They had been part of the Dakota Territory, originally part of the Louisiana Purchase,
before statehood.
1889 (November 8): Montana became the 41st state. The Montana Territory had been organized in 1864
from Idaho Territory.
1889 (November 11): Washington became the 42nd state. Washington Territory had been organized in 1853
from the Oregon Territory and originally acquired by the United States in the Oregon Country acquisition
in 1846.
1890 (July 3): Idaho became the 43rd state. Idaho Territory had been organized in 1863 from Washington
Territory and originally acquired by the United States in the Oregon Country acquisition in 1846.
1890 (July 10): Wyoming became the 44th state. Wyoming Territory had been organized in 1868 and had
taken land from the Dakota, Idaho, and Utah territories.
1896 (January 4): Utah became the 45th state. Utah Territory had been organized in 1850 and, with the
exception of a small area, had been acquired in 1848 in the Mexican Cession.
1898 (July 7): President McKinley signed a joint resolution of both houses of Congress that annexed
Hawaii, an independent kingdom, to the United States and created the Territory of Hawaii.
1907 (November 16): Oklahoma became the 46th state. The state was formed from Oklahoma Territory
and Indian Territory.
1912: The District of Alaska became the Territory of Alaska.
1912 (January 6): New Mexico became the 47th state. New Mexico Territory had been organized in
1850.
1912 (February 14): Arizona became the 48th state. Although not identical territories, but with overlapping
boundaries, there was an Arizona Territory of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1832 and an Arizona Territory
of the United States that was organized in 1863.
1959 (January 3): Alaska became the 49th state. It was purchased by the United States in 1867. It was
initially the Department of Alaska, then organized as the District of Alaska in 1884, and finally had been
organized into a territory in 1912.
1959 (August 21): Hawaii became the 50th state. Hawaii was formerly the Kingdom of Hawaii and then
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