 When the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark Expedition and cessation of Indian hostilities during and following the War of 1812 opened the way for settlement in the Mississippi Valley, American Baptists were among the pioneers.Similarly, when opportunities opened in the Northwest Territory (modern states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, as well as the northeastern part of Minnesota), in the Southwest following the Mexican–American War, in California during the 1849 Gold Rush, in the Republic of Texas, post-Russian Alaska, and in Cuba and Puerto Rico after the Spanish–American War, home missionaries moved to these new frontiers.As missions and churches were planted, missionaries created associations and Bible and tract societies and encouraged the formation of state conventions and, later, city mission societies.