Nebraska Territory

The Nebraska Territory was a large region of the United States established in 1854, covering much of the central part of North America. It was created as part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act to organize new lands west of Iowa and Missouri, allowing settlers to determine via popular sovereignty whether to allow slavery. The territory included areas that would later become several states, including Nebraska and parts of Kansas and the Dakotas. It was sparsely populated at first, with the development of railroads and settlements growing over time, eventually leading to the area's admission as states in 1867.