Northwest Territory
Okay kiddo, let me try to explain the Northwest Territory in a way that's easy for you to understand.
The Northwest Territory was a big piece of land in the United States a long time ago. It included what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota.
But before those states even existed, Native American tribes lived there for thousands of years. Then, in the late 1700s, some French and British people came and tried to claim the land for themselves.
Eventually, the United States won control of the Northwest Territory in a big war called the Revolutionary War.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. The government back then wanted to sell the land in the Northwest Territory to make money for the country. But they also had to figure out how to govern that land and who was going to live there. So, they came up with a really cool plan.
They decided to divide the Northwest Territory into smaller sections called "townships". Each township was about six miles long and six miles wide, and they were arranged in a grid pattern.
The government also made a new law called the Northwest Ordinance. It gave rules for how people could live in the Northwest Territory and become states. Some of the rules included having to have at least 60,000 people living in an area before it could become a state, and forbidding slavery in the territory.
So, eventually, as people moved west and settled in the Northwest Territory, different states were created out of those townships.
And that, my little friend, is the story of the Northwest Territory.
The Northwest Territory was a big piece of land in the United States a long time ago. It included what is now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota.
But before those states even existed, Native American tribes lived there for thousands of years. Then, in the late 1700s, some French and British people came and tried to claim the land for themselves.
Eventually, the United States won control of the Northwest Territory in a big war called the Revolutionary War.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. The government back then wanted to sell the land in the Northwest Territory to make money for the country. But they also had to figure out how to govern that land and who was going to live there. So, they came up with a really cool plan.
They decided to divide the Northwest Territory into smaller sections called "townships". Each township was about six miles long and six miles wide, and they were arranged in a grid pattern.
The government also made a new law called the Northwest Ordinance. It gave rules for how people could live in the Northwest Territory and become states. Some of the rules included having to have at least 60,000 people living in an area before it could become a state, and forbidding slavery in the territory.
So, eventually, as people moved west and settled in the Northwest Territory, different states were created out of those townships.
And that, my little friend, is the story of the Northwest Territory.
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