History
The Missouri Territory was originally known as the Louisiana Territory and was renamed to avoid confusion with the new State of Louisiana which joined the Union on April 30, 1812 right before the War of 1812. The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 established the northern boundary of the Missouri Territory with the British territory of Rupert's Land at the 49th parallel north. This gave the Missouri Territory the Red River Valley south of the 49th parallel and gave Rupert's Land the slice of Missouri River Valley north of 49th parallel. The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819 established the southern and western boundaries of the territory with the Spanish territories of Tejas and Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The United States surrendered a significant portion of the Missouri Territory to Spain in exchange for Spanish Florida. The Convention of 1812 and the Adams–Onis Treaty would be the last significant losses of United States territory from the contiguous United States.
On March 2, 1819, all of the Missouri Territory south of the parallel 36°30' north, except the Missouri Bootheel between the Mississippi River and the Saint Francis River north of the 36th parallel north, was designated the new Territory of Arkansaw. (The spelling of Arkansaw would be changed a few years later, although the proper pronunciation of the name would be debated until 1881). The southeastern portion of the Missouri Territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Missouri on August 10, 1821.
From the division of the Louisiana Territory in 1812 to 1821, St. Louis was the capital of the Missouri Territory.
The remaining portion of the territory, consisting of the present states of Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas; most of Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana; plus parts of Colorado and Minnesota, effectively became unorganized territory after Missouri became a state. In 1834, the portion east of the Missouri River was attached to the Michigan Territory. Over time, various territories were created in whole or in part from its remaining area: Iowa (1838), Minnesota (1849), Kansas and Nebraska (both 1854), Colorado and Dakota (both 1861), Idaho (1863), Montana (1864), and Wyoming (1868).
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“To history therefore I must refer for answer, in which it would be an unhappy passage indeed, which should shew by what fatal indulgence of subordinate views and passions, a contest for an atom had defeated well founded prospects of giving liberty to half the globe.”
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“There is nothing truer than myth: history, in its attempt to “realize” myth, distorts it, stops halfway; when history claims to have “succeeded” this is nothing but humbug and mystification. Everything we dream is “realizable.” Reality does not have to be: it is simply what it is.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
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