The Northwest Ordinance created a pathway for settled areas to apply for statehood. Which option best describes that pathway?

• A. A settled territory could apply for statehood after reaching a population threshold
• B. Territories automatically became states after 5 years
• C. Territories could never become states
• D. Territories were absorbed into existing states

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the Northwest Ordinance set a clear path from a settled territory to statehood based on population growth. When a territory in the Northwest reached about 60,000 free inhabitants, it could draft its own state constitution and petition Congress for admission to the Union. If Congress approved, the territory would become a new state with equal status to the original states. Until that approval, it stayed a territory, not automatically a state after a fixed time, and not absorbed into existing states. This framework ensures new states enter the Union through a formal process tied to population and constitutional governance, rather than being created on a timer or absorbed.