Ohio Country

The Ohio Country (sometimes called the Ohio Territory or Ohio Valley by the French) was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie.

One of the first frontier regions of the United States, the area encompassed roughly the present-day states of Western Pennsylvania, northwestern West Virginia, Ohio, and eastern Indiana. Historians believe that the issue of Anglo-American settlement in the region was a primary cause of the French and Indian War and a contributing factor to the American Revolutionary War.

After the Revolution and resolution of state claims to the territory, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 established the boundaries of the Northwest Territory, which was larger than the Ohio Country. The territory included all the land of the United States west of Pennsylvania and northwest of the Ohio River. It covered all of the modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the northeastern part of Minnesota. The area covered more than 260,000 square miles (670,000 km2).