In 1783 when the United States and Great Britain signed the treaty of Paris ending the war of Independence the boundaries officially , were the Atlantic ocean on the East and Mississippi river on the West , Canada on the North and Spanish Florida on the South. This included much more than the thirteen colonies it included the Western lands , Great Britain had won this land from France in the end of French and Indian war. In 1763 when the war ended France lost all of its territory in North America. Great Britain acquired French Canada and the rich lands of Ohio river valley. American colonists moved right in , native Americans living on the land attacked the settlers and the British decided to send in troops to protect them this was very costly, so the British issued the proclamation of 1763 stating that there could be no settlement West of the Appalachian Mountains , the colonists were furious and it got worse when the British imposed new taxes on the colonists to pay for the soldiers that they had to send to the western lands for protection. All of this led directly to the declaration of Independence. When America won the Revolution it also won all of the British lands South of Canada and East of Mississippi. Now the new nation had to decide to what to do with this land , at first the states were given control which didn’t work then a new plan was developed which was called the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, under this ordinance once the population of an area totaled five thousand free males who owned almost fifty acres of land the people could elect an assembly and establish their own government. When the territory had sixty thousand people it could apply to become a new State. From all these territories came the state of Ohio , Indiana , Illinois , Michigan and Wisconsin , Kentucky became a separate state in 1792 and in 1796 Tennessee became the sixteenth state. The last two states in the original territory of the United States were Mississippi and Alabama that joined the union in 1817 and 1819.
The Louisiana territory of North America was owned by Napoleon Bonaparte , his territory consisted of all the present day American states, Louisiana and Haiti were a part of his plan for world domination by establishing a French empire in the North America unfortunately for Napoleon he lacked in funds and when the British declared war on the French. Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana territory, at the beginning of the nineteenth century he became concerned about the fate of New Orleans during that period New Orleans was owned by Spain , it was the center of trade due to its location at the mouth of the Mississippi river. When French took control of the Louisiana territory they also got New Orleans, Jefferson knew that Napoleon had plans to build a sugar empire in the Americas so he took action and made an offer to buy New Orleans for two million dollars. As Napoleon was going through some major crisis because of the British war he made a offer to Jefferson to buy the entire Louisiana territory , which was sold by Napoleon to Jefferson for fifteen million dollars. This Louisiana purchase was the biggest real estate deal in the history of the United States , The purchased territory included the whole of Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska some parts of Minnesota and Louisiana west of Mississippi River, included New Orleans, some big parts of North and northeastern New Mexico, South Dakota, also included northern Texas, and some major parts of Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado.
The Great compromise is also known as the Connecticut Compromise, which was a major compromise at the Constitutional Convention that included a two-house legislature, with the Senate holding equal representation in all the states while the House of Representatives having representation comparative to state populaces. All the small states desired each state to have the same amount of representatives in Congress while the big states wanted representation according to the population. A plan was proposed by Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth on July 16, 1787, to establish a two-house legislature. The two-house edifice of the legislative branch of government for United States was established by the Great Compromise. It was the blend of two plans which had different views of how to represent the people of the United States. It solved the issue of the slave population that they would be considered when it came to representation and taxation. In 1787 of May, the delegates from twelve of the thirteen states met in Philadelphia at the constitutional convention. Their biggest challenge was representation in the legislative branch. The larger states were represented by Virginia under the Virginia Plan , which called for representation to be based on population , according to this plan states with more people received more representation while states with less people will receive less repetitive. The states of small population were worried of being let down by larger states, they were represented by the New Jersey Plan which called for equal representation for every state regardless of population. This disagreement led to the end of the constitutional convention and the constitution itself. Then the constitution was saved by the Connecticut plan , which called for a bicameral legislature which meant the congress will have two different houses that were the house of representatives which based representation on population which made the larger states happy and the senate representation would be equal with every state getting two senators regardless of the population. This played an important role in the constitution survival.
Shays Rebellion happened in Western Massachusetts in the period 1786. After the revolutionary war many veterans went into debt , due to which these small farmers in the area retorted furiously to debt and hefty taxation. Daniel Shays was born in 1747 to he was a landless farmer when he participated in the Revolutionary War. He joined the local territorial army, fought in many battles . He got wounded in war and he wasn’t paid for his services in the military. After returning home , he got to know that he was being called to court for his debts . Since wasn’t paid for his service, he had no mode of paying these debts. After joining numerous town gatherings, he discovered that many other soldiers and farmers were in the similar circumstances. They came together to appeal the Massachusetts state legislature for debt liberation. The legislature rejected all proposals for debt relief. He decided to lead a group of 1,200 protestors on a march towards the federal armory. As soon as they reached the location private militia owned by the merchants killed and wounded some protestors. Shay’s and rest of his protestors were arrested. Shays’ rebellion raised the question of the democratic survival after the American Revolution. In the Articles of Confederation, Congress had restricted powers. It did not have the right to fund soldiers to defeat the rebellion.Shays Rebellion was a turning point in the US history .His rebellion led to decree the Articles of Confederation incorrect and it held support for the Constitution which was made in Constitutional Convention in 1787. Then in 1788 Daniel Shays was approved a pardon by the state of Massachusetts, and he was able to return home. He was also slowly paid for his years of service in the Army during the American Revolution.