Louisiana statehood and the renaming of Missouri Territory
- When
- 1812
- Where
- formal act of admission in Washington, D.C.; act of Congress in Washington, D.C.
- Episodes
- 2
On April 30, 1812, the Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana, the 18th U.S. state, and the remaining Louisiana Territory was renamed Missouri Territory by Congress on June 4, 1812, to avoid confusion with the new state.
Episodes
- Louisiana admitted as the 18th U.S. state
The Territory of Orleans became the State of Louisiana on April 30, 1812, joining the Union as the eighteenth state.
- Louisiana Territory renamed Missouri Territory
Congress renamed the Louisiana Territory as Missouri Territory on June 4, 1812, to avoid confusion with the new state of Louisiana.
Background and detail
Background. After the United States acquired the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the area was divided along the 33rd parallel on March 26, 1804, creating the Territory of Orleans to the south and the District of Louisiana, later the Louisiana Territory, to the north.
Louisiana Statehood. Louisiana became the eighteenth U.S. state on April 30, 1812, when the Territory of Orleans was transformed into the State of Louisiana. Shortly before, on April 14, 1812, Congress had authorized the state to expand its borders to include the Florida Parishes, though the state legislature did not approve the change until August 4.
Renaming of Missouri Territory. On June 4, 1812, Congress renamed the Louisiana Territory as the Missouri Territory to avoid confusion with the new 18th state of Louisiana, which lay further south on the lower Mississippi River with its port city of New Orleans. The territory existed until August 10, 1821.
Sources
- Louisiana Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
- Missouri Territory Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-21
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.