What is the significance of the Land Ordinance of 1785?

• A. It established a standardized method for surveying and selling western lands to fund the national government and promote orderly settlement.
• B. It created the system for issuing national currency.
• C. It banned slavery in all new territories.
• D. It established the two-house Congress for the new territories.

Answer: (A)

The main idea being tested is how the Land Ordinance of 1785 organized western land to fund the new government and encourage orderly settlement. It created a uniform surveying method, the Public Land Survey System, using a rectangular grid that split western lands into townships six miles on each side, with each township containing 36 one-square-mile sections. This standardized approach made land sales predictable and fair, helped the government raise revenue, and reduced land disputes as settlers moved west. It set a lasting pattern for how new territories would be surveyed, sold, and developed, influencing later expansion policies.

This isn’t about issuing a national currency, banning slavery in all territories, or establishing the two-house Congress. Those topics relate to other aspects of early American policy and governance.