Its first target is the vast, resource-rich 'Northwest Territory', stretching from the Appalachian Mountains to the ...

Then, after the United States defeated the British (with French help) during the Revolutionary War, the British ceded the territory to the Americans in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

The Congress adopted "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio," commonly known as the Northwest Ordinance, on July 13, 1787. The Northwest ...