Territory of Missouri | |||||||||||||||||
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Organized incorporated territory of United States | |||||||||||||||||
1812–1821 | |||||||||||||||||
![]() Map of the Territory of Missouri in 1812 | |||||||||||||||||
Capital | St. Louis | ||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||
• Type | Organized incorporated territory | ||||||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||||||
• Renaming of Louisiana Territory | June 4 1812 | ||||||||||||||||
• Territory of Arkansas created | March 2, 1819 | ||||||||||||||||
• Missouri statehood | August 10 1821 | ||||||||||||||||
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The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812, [1] until August 10, 1821. In 1819, the Territory of Arkansas was created from a portion of its southern area. In 1821, a southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri, and the rest became unorganized territory for several years.
The Missouri Territory was originally known as the Louisiana Territory and was renamed by the U.S. Congress on June 4, 1812, to avoid confusion with the new state of Louisiana, which had been admitted to the Union on April 30, 1812.
On October 1, 1812, Governor Clark organized the five administrative districts of the former Louisiana Territory into the first five counties of the Missouri Territory.
The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 established the northern boundary of the Missouri Territory with the British territory of Rupert's Land at the 49th parallel north. This gave the Missouri Territory the Red River Valley south of the 49th parallel and gave Rupert's Land the slice of Missouri River Valley north of 49th parallel. The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 established the southern and western boundaries of the territory with the Spanish territories of Spanish Texas and Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The United States surrendered a significant portion of the Missouri Territory to Spain in exchange for Spanish Florida. The Convention of 1818 and the Adams–Onís Treaty would be the last significant losses of United States territory from the contiguous United States, although the cession of lands north of the 49th parallel would turn out to be the only permanent cession of U.S. territory (the territories ceded to Spain would be re-taken by the U.S. following the Texas annexation and the Mexican–American War).
On March 2, 1819, all of the Missouri Territory south of the parallel 36°30' north, except the Missouri Bootheel between the Mississippi River and the Saint Francis River north of the 36th parallel north, was designated the new Territory of Arkansaw. (The spelling of Arkansaw would be changed a few years later, although the proper pronunciation of the name would be debated until 1881.) The southeastern portion of the Missouri Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri on August 10, 1821.
St. Louis was the capital of the Missouri Territory. [2]
The remaining portion of the territory, consisting of the present states of Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, most of Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana, and parts of Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico, effectively became an unorganized territory after Missouri became a state. In 1834, the portion east of the Missouri River was attached to the Michigan Territory. Over time, various territories were created in whole or in part from its remaining area: Iowa (1838), Minnesota (1849), Kansas and Nebraska (both 1854), Colorado and Dakota (both 1861), Idaho (1863), Montana (1864), and Wyoming (1868).
In the 1820 United States census, 15 counties in the Missouri Territory reported the following population counts: [3]
Rank | County | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Howard | 13,426 |
2 | St. Louis | 10,049 |
3 | Cooper | 6,959 |
4 | Cape Girardeau | 5,968 |
5 | Ste. Genevieve | 4,962 |
6 | St. Charles | 3,970 |
7 | Pike | 3,747 |
8 | Montgomery | 3,074 |
9 | Washington | 2,769 |
10 | Franklin | 2,379 |
11 | New Madrid | 2,296 |
12 | Madison | 2,047 |
13 | Jefferson | 1,835 |
14 | Lincoln | 1,662 |
15 | Wayne | 1,443 |
Missouri Territory | 66,586 | |
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River's drainage basin west of the river. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi in Middle America. However, France only controlled a small fraction of this area, most of which was inhabited by Native Americans; effectively, for the majority of the area, the United States bought the preemptive right to obtain Indian lands by treaty or by conquest, to the exclusion of other colonial powers.
The Territory of Louisiana or Louisiana Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1805, until June 4, 1812, when it was renamed the Missouri Territory. The territory was formed out of the District of Louisiana, which consisted of the portion of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 33rd parallel.
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Spanish Cession, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. It settled a standing border dispute between the two countries and was considered a triumph of American diplomacy. It came during the successful Latin American wars of independence against Spain.
The Territory of Kansas was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861, when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the free state of Kansas.
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The Territory of Orleans or Orleans Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from October 1, 1804, until April 30, 1812, when it was admitted to the Union as the State of Louisiana.
The District of Louisiana, or Louisiana District, was an official and temporary United States government designation for the portion of the Louisiana Purchase that had not been organized into the Territory of Orleans or "Orleans Territory". The district officially existed from March 10, 1804, until July 4, 1805, when it was organized as the Louisiana Territory.
The Arkansas Territory was a territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1819, to June 15, 1836, when the final extent of Arkansas Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Arkansas. Arkansas Post was the first territorial capital (1819–1821) and Little Rock was the second (1821–1836).
The territory of the United States and its overseas possessions has evolved over time, from the colonial era to the present day. It includes formally organized territories, proposed and failed states, unrecognized breakaway states, international and interstate purchases, cessions, and land grants, and historical military departments and administrative districts. The last section lists informal regions from American vernacular geography known by popular nicknames and linked by geographical, cultural, or economic similarities, some of which are still in use today.
The Convention respecting fisheries, boundary and the restoration of slaves, also known as the London Convention, Anglo-American Convention of 1818, Convention of 1818, or simply the Treaty of 1818, is an international treaty signed in 1818 between the United States and the United Kingdom. This treaty resolved standing boundary issues between the two nations. The treaty allowed for joint occupation and settlement of the Oregon Country, known to the British and in Canadian history as the Columbia District of the Hudson's Bay Company, and including the southern portion of its sister district New Caledonia.
The parallel 36°30′ north is a circle of latitude that is 36 and one-half degrees north of the equator of the Earth. This parallel of latitude is particularly significant in the history of the United States as the line of the Missouri Compromise, which was used to divide the prospective slave and free states west of the Mississippi River, with the exception of Missouri, which is mostly north of this parallel.
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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the U.S. state of Wyoming:
The area currently occupied by the U.S. State of New Mexico has undergone numerous changes in occupancy and territorial claims and designations. This geographic chronology traces the territorial evolution of New Mexico.
The following outline traces the territorial evolution of the U.S. State of Wyoming.
The following outline traces the territorial evolution of the U.S. State of North Dakota.
The following outline traces the territorial evolution of the U.S. State of South Dakota.
The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the major war known by Americans as the French and Indian War and by Canadians as the Seven Years' War / Guerre de Sept Ans, or by French-Canadians, La Guerre de la Conquête. It was signed by Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. Preferring to keep Guadeloupe, France gave up Canada and all of its claims to territory east of the Mississippi River to Britain. With France out of North America this dramatically changed the European political scene on the continent.
A Spanish military fort was constructed and occupied in 1819 near Sangre de Cristo Pass in the present U.S. State of Colorado to protect the Spanish colony of Santa Fe de Nuevo México from a possible invasion from the United States. The fort was the only Spanish settlement in present-day Colorado. The site of this fort is known today as the Spanish Fort.