Describe the three main stages that a territory would go through in order to become a state.

In order for a territory to become a state, there were several different processes they had to go through. Here are the three main ones:

1) Had to have a large enough population in order to be considered a state - Laws like the Northwest Ordinance made it so that states had to have at least 50,000 citizens in order to be considered for statehood.

2) Had to create a constitution - In order for a territory to become a state, they had to develop and pass a state constitution.

3) Congressional approval - The application for statehood then had to be approved by the federal government in order for it to be official.