Enjoy your 4th, sir.
Yeah. They were actually a nation confederacy; hence the Articles of Confederation. They did things nationally through one voice—Congress. There was no executive branch. The Constitution did not make a new country, imho, but rather a consolidated national government.
The country as a whole won its independence, and even the western places that other provinces or colonies claimed, that Great Britian gave up, where given over to that under the Articles of Confederation national government and that was the Northwest Ordinance.
The Northwest Ordinance decided what we (and not just one single state, but ALL of the States) were going to do with the land that we had acquired through the Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the American Revolution. This land that we got from Britain at the end of the war was called the Northwest Territory and it includes most of modern day Ohio Indiana Illinois Michigan and Wisconsin.
And the question that the delegates had to answer is, “What are we (again, USA) going to do with this land? Are we going to make it a colony? Are we going to make it a territory? Can it be admitted as a state?” And they saw the writing on the wall that if they left it as a colony the Territory could eventually have another revolution.
So they say these territories can become states part of the United States. But there are some requirements;
They have to have self-government, they have freedom of speech freedom of the press freedom of religion. They’re not allowed to have slavery.
I read a very interesting book years ago on this time period, I think it was called “Are we”, or “Were we” a Nation?... under the Articles” or something like that that. There were some disputes between the states that Congress did try to adjudicate. Success on this, however, had to wait on the new national government.
I salute your service Navy Vet. I was USAF. Enjoy Independence Day!