AP United States History

## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why western lands were a major issue under the Articles of Confederation
- Distinguish between the Land Ordinance of **1785** and the Northwest Ordinance of **1787**
- Describe how the Confederation Congress created a system for territorial government and statehood
- Understand why the Northwest Ordinance is considered a major success of the Articles of Confederation
- Analyze how the slavery ban in the Northwest Territory shaped later sectional conflict
- Evaluate the gap between U.S. policy promises and the reality of Native American dispossession in the Ohio Valley

## AP United States History Syllabus

For the AP United States History, you are expected to understand western settlement under the Articles of Confederation, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that disputes over western land claims delayed final ratification of the Articles of Confederation until **March 1, 1781**
- Identify the purpose of the **Land Ordinance of 1785** as a system for surveying and selling western land
- Know that the **Northwest Ordinance of 1787** created a government for the Northwest Territory on **July 13, 1787**
- Explain the three-stage process from territory to statehood, including the **5,000 free adult male** and **60,000 people** benchmarks
- Understand the meaning of **equal footing** for new states entering the Union
- Identify the Northwest Territory as land north of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and south of the Great Lakes
- Explain the significance and limits of the slavery ban in the Northwest Territory
- Understand that western settlement increased conflict with Native nations, especially in the Ohio Valley

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. What was the difference between the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787?
2. How did the Northwest Ordinance solve a problem created by westward expansion under the Articles of Confederation?
3. What did it mean for new states to enter the Union on an “equal footing”?
4. Why is the Northwest Ordinance considered one of the main achievements of the Confederation Congress?
5. How did western settlement under the ordinance affect Native American peoples in the Ohio Valley?

## Introduction

The Articles of Confederation created a weak national government, and APUSH questions often ask students to explain both its failures and its successes. One of the clearest successes was western land policy. While Congress could not tax effectively, regulate trade well, or respond strongly to unrest like Shays’s Rebellion, it did create a workable system for organizing western lands.

That system mattered because independence created a huge practical problem. The United States claimed territory west of the Appalachian Mountains, but that land was not empty, and the states disagreed over who controlled it. The Confederation Congress had to answer several questions at once: how would land be surveyed, how would it be sold, how would territories be governed, and when would they become equal states rather than permanent colonies? The answer came through the **Land Ordinance of 1785** and the **Northwest Ordinance of 1787**.

> **Key Term: Confederation Congress**
> The national legislature operating under the Articles of Confederation, with limited powers but responsibility for governing western lands.

### Why western lands were such a major issue

Western settlement was not just about pioneers moving onto open land. It involved politics, money, and national survival. After the Revolution, several states had overlapping western claims. Smaller states, especially Maryland, worried that states with huge claims would become too powerful. That is one reason final ratification of the Articles of Confederation was delayed until **1781**. States had to cede many western claims to the national government.

> **Key Term: western land claims**
> Competing state claims to land west of the Appalachians that created conflict during the Confederation era.

Once those lands passed under national control, Congress faced two linked problems.

First, it needed revenue. Under the Articles, Congress lacked the power to levy national taxes directly, so land sales offered one of the few ways to raise money.

Second, it needed order. If settlers rushed west without a system, the United States could face land disputes, unstable local rule, and endless conflicts over whether new western communities would count as equal members of the Union.

This is why western policy under the Articles matters so much on the exam. It shows that the national government was weak in many areas, but not useless. Students often go too far and say the Articles were a complete failure. APUSH rewards a more balanced judgment.

> **Test Tip:** If an SAQ or LEQ asks you to assess the Articles of Confederation, do not write that they “failed at everything.” Use the Northwest Ordinance as clear evidence of a real achievement.

The policy also connected to major AP themes:

- **Migration and Settlement:** Americans moved into the trans-Appalachian West
- **Politics and Power:** Congress defined how territories would be governed
- **Geography and the Environment:** rivers, survey lines, and fertile lands shaped settlement
- **Social Structures:** the slavery ban in the Northwest helped create a regional divide

### The Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787

The two ordinances are often confused, but they did different jobs.

The **Land Ordinance of 1785** was about measuring and selling land. It created a rectangular survey system. Land was divided into townships of six miles by six miles, then into **36 sections** of **640 acres** each. This made land sales more orderly and easier to record. It also helped the national government raise money.

The **Northwest Ordinance of 1787** was about government and statehood. It created a political system for the Northwest Territory and explained how territories could become states.

A simple way to remember the distinction is:

- **1785** = map it and sell it
- **1787** = govern it and admit it
  > **Key Term: Land Ordinance of 1785**
  > A Confederation law that created the system for surveying western lands into townships and sections before sale.
  >
  > **Key Term: Northwest Ordinance of 1787**
  > A Confederation law that organized the Northwest Territory, set rules for territorial government, and created a process for statehood.

Why does this distinction matter? Because APUSH multiple-choice questions like to test it directly. One law handled land distribution; the other handled political development. If you mix them up, you may miss a question even if you know most of the background.

The Northwest Territory included land north of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and south of the Great Lakes. From this region eventually came **Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin**, and part of present-day **Minnesota**.

This was a major step in U.S. development. European empires often treated frontier regions as dependent colonies. The Confederation Congress instead created a path by which western territories would become full states.

### How the Northwest Ordinance created a path to statehood

The most important feature of the Northwest Ordinance was its staged process of government. It did not assume that a settlement should become a state immediately. Instead, it built a sequence.

Stage 1: Congress would appoint a **governor, secretary, and judges** for the territory.

Stage 2: Once the territory reached **5,000 free adult male inhabitants**, it could elect its own assembly and send a **nonvoting delegate** to Congress.

Stage 3: Once the total population reached **60,000**, the territory could draft a state constitution and apply for admission to the Union.

> **Key Term: territorial government**
> A temporary form of government set up by Congress for a U.S. territory before it became a state.

This system mattered for several reasons.

First, it balanced national oversight with local self-government. Congress controlled the early stage to prevent chaos, but as population increased, settlers gained more political power.

Second, it established a repeatable model. The United States would later use territorial organization again and again as it expanded.

Third, it answered a basic constitutional question before the Constitution itself took effect: what exactly happens when the republic grows? The ordinance gave a practical answer.

Most important, the ordinance said that new states would enter on an **equal footing** with the original thirteen. That phrase matters a great deal.

> **Key Term: equal footing**
> The principle that new states would enter the Union with the same legal and political status as the original states.

This was a major break from colonial logic. Congress was not creating permanent dependencies. It was creating future coequal states. That helped strengthen national unity because western settlers were promised full membership, not second-class status.

> **Test Tip:** In a multiple-choice question, “equal footing” is a clue that the answer is probably the Northwest Ordinance, not the Constitution generally and not the Land Ordinance of 1785.

The ordinance also stated that the territory would eventually be divided into not fewer than three and not more than five states. That shows Congress was planning for expansion in advance, not simply reacting to it.

### Why the ordinance mattered so much: liberty, slavery, and Native conflict

The Northwest Ordinance is often remembered for statehood, but it also mattered because it laid down rules about rights, education, and slavery.

It guaranteed several civil liberties, including **religious freedom**, **habeas corpus**, **trial by jury**, and protections related to due process. It also declared that “religion, morality, and knowledge” were necessary to good government and encouraged schools and education.

> **Key Term: habeas corpus**
> The legal principle that a person cannot be held in custody without lawful justification and access to legal process.

This is one reason some historians see the ordinance as a forerunner to later rights protections. Under the weak Articles government, Congress still managed to attach political principles to western expansion.

Its most famous clause was **Article VI**, which prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude in the Northwest Territory except as punishment for crime.

That slavery ban was historically important, but students need to handle it carefully.

First, the ban applied only to the Northwest Territory, not to all western lands.

Second, the ordinance also included a **fugitive slave provision**, meaning escaped enslaved people found in the territory could still be returned to enslavers.

Third, enforcement was uneven. The ordinance drew a line against slavery’s expansion in one region, but it did not create racial equality.

Still, the ban mattered because it helped shape the future sectional map of the United States. It established an early precedent for dividing territories by slave status. Later debates over Missouri, Kansas, and the western territories all happened in a country already used to the idea that Congress could define where slavery could and could not expand.

> **Key Term: Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance**
> The section of the ordinance that prohibited slavery in the Northwest Territory while also requiring the return of fugitive enslaved people.

This is where strong AP analysis goes beyond memorizing that “slavery was banned.” The better point is that the ordinance simultaneously limited slavery’s expansion and exposed the contradictions of the early republic. A territory could be officially free while still participating in the return of escaped enslaved people.

The ordinance also revealed another contradiction: the United States claimed to act lawfully and orderly, yet Native nations living in the Ohio Valley had not consented to American rule over their lands. The ordinance included language promising fair treatment toward Native peoples, but in practice settlement pushed directly into Native homelands.

Many Native nations rejected the idea that Britain’s defeat had simply transferred their lands to the United States. They had not surrendered those lands. As American settlement increased, Native resistance increased too.

A major alliance, often called the **Western Confederacy** or **Miami Confederacy**, resisted U.S. expansion in the Ohio Valley. Fighting continued into the **1790s**. U.S. forces under **General Anthony Wayne** defeated Native resistance at the **Battle of Fallen Timbers** in **1794**, and the **Treaty of Greenville** in **1795** forced many Native groups to cede most of present-day Ohio.

That chain matters for APUSH causation:

1. Congress opened the Northwest to organized settlement
2. Settlers moved in under national protection
3. Native nations resisted because they had not agreed to lose the land
4. The United States used military force and treaties to secure control
5. Settlement expanded further

This shows why western expansion was never simply peaceful migration. It was state-backed settlement tied to dispossession.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- Western land claims delayed full ratification of the Articles of Confederation until **1781**
- The Confederation Congress used western policy as one of its main successful functions
- The **Land Ordinance of 1785** created a system for surveying and selling land
- The **Northwest Ordinance of 1787** organized the Northwest Territory and created a statehood process
- The Northwest Territory lay north of the Ohio River, east of the Mississippi River, and south of the Great Lakes
- The ordinance created a three-stage path to statehood based on population growth
- At **5,000 free adult male inhabitants**, a territory could elect an assembly and send a nonvoting delegate to Congress
- At **60,000 people**, a territory could draft a constitution and apply for statehood
- New states were to enter the Union on **equal footing** with the original thirteen states
- The ordinance guaranteed civil liberties such as religious freedom, habeas corpus, and trial by jury
- **Article VI** banned slavery in the Northwest Territory but included a fugitive slave provision
- U.S. settlement in the Northwest increased conflict with Native nations, leading to battles and treaties in the Ohio Valley

## Key Terms and Concepts

- Confederation Congress
- western land claims
- Land Ordinance of 1785
- Northwest Ordinance of 1787
- territorial government
- equal footing
- habeas corpus
- Article VI of the Northwest Ordinance


The Articles of Confederation - Northwest Ordinance and western settlement