Editing Colorado Territory (section)

{{Short description|Historic region of the US, 1861 to 1876}}
{{About||the western film|Colorado Territory (film)|the attempt to divide the State of California|Territory of Colorado (California)}}

{{Infobox Former subdivision
| conventional_long_name = Territory of Colorado
| common_name            = Colorado Territory
| nation                 = the United States
| subdivision            = [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|Organized incorporated territory]]
| event_pre              = 
| date_pre               = 
| year_pre               = 
| event_start            = [[Colorado Organic Act]]<ref name=Colorado_Origin_Act>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/36th-congress/session-2/c36s2ch59.pdf|title=An Act To provide a temporary Government for the Territory of Colorado|author=Thirty-sixth United States Congress|website=[[Library of Congress]] |author-link=36th United States Congress|date=February 28, 1861|access-date=May 13, 2023}}</ref>
| date_start             = February 28
| year_start             = 1861
| event1                 = 
| date_event1            = 
| year_event1            = 
| event_end              = [[Colorado|Statehood]]<ref name=Colorado_Statehood_Proclamation>{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-230-admission-colorado-into-the-union|title=Proclamation 230—Admission of Colorado into the Union|author=[[Ulysses S. Grant]]|date=August 1, 1876|publisher=The American Presidency Project|access-date=May 13, 2023}}</ref>
| date_end               = August 1
| year_end               = 1876
| p1                     = Kansas Territory
| flag_p1                = Flag of the United States (1859-1861).svg
| p2                     = Nebraska Territory
| flag_p2                = Flag of the United States (1859-1861).svg
| p3                     = New Mexico Territory
| flag_p3                = Flag of the United States (1859-1861).svg
| p4                     = Utah Territory
| flag_p4                = Flag_of_the_Utah_Territory.svg
| s1                     = State of Colorado
| flag_s1                = Flag_of_Colorado_(1876–1907).svg
| s2                     = 
| flag_s2                = 
| s3                     = 
| flag_s3                = 
| image_flag             = 
| image_coat             = Colorado_state_coat_of_arms_(illustrated,_1876).jpg
| symbol_type            = 
| image_map              = 1860 Colorado Territory map.svg
| image_map_caption      = The Territory of Colorado as shown imposed on an 1860 map of the Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, and Utah Territories.
| capital                = [[Denver City, Colorado Territory|Denver City]] 1861-1862<br/>[[Colorado City, Colorado Territory|Colorado City]] 1862<br/>[[Golden City, Colorado Territory|Golden City]] 1862-1867<br/>[[Denver, Colorado Territory|Denver]]{{efn|name=Denver|[[Denver City, Colorado Territory|Denver City]] changed its name to the [[Denver, Colorado Territory|City of Denver]] on February 13, 1866.<ref>{{cite book|title=Colorado Post Offices 1859-1989|first1=William H.|last1=Bauer|first2=James L.|last2=Ozment|first3=John H.|last3=Willard|date=1990|publisher=[[Colorado Railroad Museum|Colorado Railroad Historical Foundation]]|location=[[Golden, Colorado]]|isbn=0-918654-42-4}}</ref>}} 1867-1876
| government_type        = [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|Organized incorporated territory]]
| title_leader           = Governor
| leader1                = ''[[List of Governors of Colorado#Governors of the Territory of Colorado|List of Governors]]''
| year_leader1           = 
| leader2                = 
| year_leader2           = 
| leader3                = 
| year_leader3           = 
| leader4                = 
| year_leader4           = 
| legislature            = 
| native_name            = 
| demonym                = 
| today                  = 
}}

The '''Territory of Colorado''' was an [[organized incorporated territory of the United States]] that existed from February 28, 1861,<ref name=Colorado_Origin_Act/> until August 1, 1876, when it was admitted to the [[United States|Union]] as the 38th  [[Colorado|State of Colorado]].<ref name=Colorado_Statehood_Proclamation/> 

The territory was organized in the wake of the [[Pike's Peak Gold Rush]] of 1858–1862, which brought the first large concentration of white settlement to the region. The organic legislative act creating the [[Slave states and free states|free]] Territory of Colorado was passed by the [[United States Congress]] and signed by 15th President [[James Buchanan]] into law on  February 28, 1861. This was during the onset of the [[American Civil War]] of April 1861 to June 1865. The boundaries of the newly designated  Colorado Territory were essentially identical with those of the modern [[Colorado|State of Colorado]], with lands taken from the four surrounding  previous Federal territories of [[Nebraska Territory|Nebraska]], [[Kansas Territory|Kansas]],  [[New Mexico Territory|New Mexico]], and  [[Utah Territory|Utah]] established during the [[1850s]]. The organization of the new territory helped solidify [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]  control over the mineral-rich area of the western  [[Rocky Mountains]]. Statehood was regarded as fairly imminent with the expected growth in the constantly westward moving population, but the local territorial ambitions for full statehood were thwarted at the end of  the war in  1865 by a constitutional [[veto]] by newly sworn in 17th President [[Andrew Johnson]]  (1808-1875, served 1865-1869),  who was a [[War Democrat]] who succeeded to the office after briefly only serving one month as [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] after Lincoln's assassination that April. Statehood for the territory was a recurring issue during the subsequent [[Ulysses S. Grant]] presidential administration, with [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] 18th President Grant advocating statehood against a less willing Congress during the following post-war [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] era (1865-1877).  After a long constant lobbying campaign, the old Colorado Territory finally ceased to exist after only 15 years when the [[Colorado|State of Colorado]] was admitted to the Union  as the 38th state during the [[Centennial Exposition|American Centennial celebrationn]] in August [[1876]]<ref name=Colorado_Statehood_Proclamation/>

East  and West of the [[Continental Divide of the Americas|Continental Divide]], which split the [[North America|North American]] continent and the [[Rocky Mountains]], plus the new territory which included the western portion of the previous [[Kansas Territory]], as well as some of the southwestern decade-old [[Nebraska Territory]], and a small parcel of the northeastern corner of the [[New Mexico Territory]]. On the western side of the Divide, the territory included much of the eastern older [[Utah Territory]], all of which besides its substantial while [[Mormons|Mormon / L.D.S.]] population especially around  the capital of [[Salt Lake City]], was strongly controlled by the [[Ute Tribe|Ute]] and [[Shoshoni]] native tribes  The [[Colorado Eastern Plains|Eastern Plains]] were held much more loosely by the intermixed [[Cheyenne]] and [[Arapaho]], as well as by the [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]], [[Comanche]] and [[Kiowa]]. In 1861, ten days before the establishment of the Federal  territory, the Arapaho and Cheyenne agreed with the [[United States]] government in  the East in [[Washington, D.C.]] to give up most their areas of the [[Great Plains]] to white settlement but were allowed to live in their larger traditional areas, so long as they could tolerate [[Homestead Act|homesteader]]s near their camps. By the end of the [[American Civil War]] in 1865, the Native American presence had been [[American Indian Wars|largely reduced or pacified through military action or peace treaties]] on the [[High Plains (United States)|High Plains]].