How did the Confederation Congress facilitate the rapid settlement of Ohio in 1787?

The Confederation Congress facilitated the rapid settlement of Ohio in 1787 through the passage of the Northwest Ordinance. The Northwest Ordinance created the Northwest Territory (the first U.S. territory) out of unincorporated land west of the Appalachian mountains. The Northwest Territory included all or parts of the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (here is a good map of the territory).

The reason Congress organized the Northwest Territory was to prepare these regions for their eventual incorporation into the union as states. Ohio was the first state to meet the requirements for statehood--which included reaching a population of 60,000 and drafting a state constitution--and it entered the union in 1803. Without the passage of the Northwest Ordinance, Ohio would not have become a state as quickly as it did.