One of the most important accomplishments of the national congress under the articles of confederation was the creation of plans for both settling and governing the territory of the North-West of the River Ohio (that the U.S. acquired after the American Revolutionary War)
This plan was created under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, an act enacted to provide for the settlement and political incorporation of the territory of the Northwest Territory in a peaceful and orderly way.
The ordinance established a division of the Northwest Territory into not less than three and nor more than five States, and that each state was to be governed by a governor, secretary, and three judges appointed by Congress until it attained a population of 5,000 adult free males, at which time it would become a territory and could form its own representative legislature.