ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by territorial expansion,

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the act of ripping land away from someone else.

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All right, here's our excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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All right, and now the question:

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Settler expansion encouraged by the Northwest Ordinance

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had what effect on Indian-colonist relations?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ drumbeat ]

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Well, we know that the Northwest Ordinance

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created new territories for American

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colonists who wanted to move to the, uh, well... north and west.

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Over here.

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So we just need to figure out what kind of impact

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that had on relations with American Indians.

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Did the Northwest Ordinance affect

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Indian-colonist relations by

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A - facilitating greater

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interaction and understanding?

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Well, the Ordinance did mandate that colonists

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should act with the utmost good faith with regard to

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American Indian tribes, but they didn't.

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And the American Indians were pretty upset.

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Makes sense, right? Colonists were moving

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onto land that had traditionally belonged to American Indians.

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So they were bound to be some problems.

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Yeah, A is out.

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Did settler expansion from the Northwest Ordinance

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B - encourage the American Indians

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to align with the French?

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Actually, most of the American Indians

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in this part of the U.S. were allied amongst themselves,

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even though their combined power still wasn't enough

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to defeat the colonists. So that eliminates B, as well.

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But maybe the Northwest Ordinance C -

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allowed the British to gain greater control of the area.

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Well, remember the 1783 Treaty of Paris?

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That was the treaty between the British and the Americans

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that ended the American Revolution.

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And part of the Treaty was that the British would

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leave the Northwest territories alone.

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Sort of a "you stay out of my backyard,

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and I'll stay out of yours." kind of deal.

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So it definitely isn't C.

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That must mean the Northwest Ordinance D -

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produced conflicts that shrank Indian territory.

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Oh, boy, did it ever.

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As colonists pressed further west,

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they came into conflict more and more often with

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Indian Americans. And after the U.S. army suffered

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several humiliating defeats in the area,

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George Washington commissioned a new fighting force

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that defeated a confederation of American Indian tribes,

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forcing them to cede much of their territory,

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which is how we got Ohio.

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So the answer is D.

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Sort of gives a whole new meaning to the word

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"shrinkage."

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[ whooping ]

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