The
Northwest Territory in the modern United States (also known as the
Old Northwest) was formed after the American Revolutionary War, and was known formally as the
Territory Northwest of the River Ohio. It was the initial post-colonial Territory of the First United States and encompassed most of pre-war British colonial territory west of the Appalachian mountains north of the Ohio River. It was created as a Territory by the Northwest Ordinance on July 13, 1787, largely a vast wilderness sparsely populated by Indians including the Delaware, Miami, Potawatomi, Shawnee and others. The territory's status was thrown into doubt a few years later, when the
Great Disunion occurred in 1789- effectively splitting the country in two.
Rufus Putnam succeeded as Governor half a year later, effectively under a military government. His term largely saw the Territory become the center of a power struggle between the Confederation and the Republic as well as attacks by Amerindians on settlements. Putman maintained the territory's neutrality during the
First American Civil War, which resulted in an influx of refugees from what was then Virginia and Pennsylvania. The increased population further drove clashes between the settlers and the Amerindians, although the growing number of settlers allowed them to defend themselves. After the end of the Civil War, the increase in population to lead to support for reform among the population. A legislature was established in 1789 after the Civil War ended. The next year,
William H. Harrison succeeded Putnam as Governor. However the reform efforts stalled quickly as conflict began across the countryside.
The
Ohio Wars would rage across the territory for nearly twenty years. Although it was ostensibly a war between the American settlers and the burgeoning Amerindian
Western Confederacy, for the first years of the war, the settlers were as much as conflict with each other as they were with the Natives. Eventually Harrison was able to organize an effective fighting force consisting of white settlers as well as
Chickasaw and
Choctaw mercenaries who were promised land and largely drove out the Confederacy’s tribes out of the region by 1818. Their victory in the Ohio Wars paved the way for settlement of eastern and central Ohio.
Since the end of the First Civil War, neither the Confederation or the Republic would allow the other to gain significant influence over the Northwest Territory. Under the tenure of Governor Harrison, the Territory effectively established itself as a self governing state. Nevertheless the
Ohio Treaty - signed in 1825- affirmed the polity’s status as a territory under both the
Confederation and the Republic. However the citizens of the Territory had formed their own distinct identity during their years of autonomy and resented having the C&R interfering in their affairs. Against the wishes of the C&R, future Governors would further the goal of an independent state through political and civil action. After their governing overlords eventually relented, the Northwest Territory would gain full nationhood in 1844 as the
Republic of Ohio.
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