The Northwest Ordinance is considered one of the most important laws in American history because it created the process for admitting states and expanding the country (C).
Passed in 1787, it recognized the sovereignty of the Federal government and allowed it to become bigger and bigger by creating entirely new states in the west, instead of enlarging the thirteen states which already existed. This resulted in the creation of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin in the early nineteenth century.
Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense to encourage the colonists to declare independence.
