Northwest Territories 1800–18

The Northwest territories existed as a legal entity between 1787 and 1803, at which point Ohio was admitted as a state, and the residual lands became the Indiana Territory. Originally, the capital of the new territory was Vincennes but when, in 1809, the Illinois Territory was carved out to the West, the capital was moved to the more central location of Corydon. From 1811, the governor of the Territory, William Henry Harrison, became embroiled in wars with the Native Americans. Harrison defeated the Shawnee at the Battle of Tippecanoe, but their leader, Tecumseh, then allied with the British in the War of 1812, before finally being overcome in 1813. In 1805, the Michigan Territory was created out of the northern portion of Indiana, which, having passed the requisite population threshold of 60,000, was admitted to statehood in 1816. In 1818, Illinois too was admitted as a state with its capital Kaskaskia.