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The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States of America in central North America. [1][2] The term excludes the only two non- contiguous states, which are Alaska and Hawaii (they are also the last two states to be admitted to ...
The United States of America was formed after thirteen British colonies in North America declared independence from the British Empire on July 4, 1776. In the Lee Resolution, passed by the Second Continental Congress two days prior, the colonies resolved that they were free and independent states.
The term "United States," when used in the geographical sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]
U.S. territorial sovereignty. In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, [1] including all waters (around islands or continental tracts). The United States asserts sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing its territory. [2]
t. e. The colonial history of the United States covers the period of European colonization of North America from the early 16th century until the incorporation of the Thirteen Colonies into the United States in 1776 during the Revolutionary War. In the late 16th century, England, France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic launched major colonization ...
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. [ note 2 ] In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and ...
First constitution for the United States. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 states of the United States, formerly the Thirteen Colonies, that served as the nation's first frame of government. It was debated by the Second Continental Congress at Independence Hall in Philadelphia between July 1776 and ...
The history of the lands that became the United States began with the arrival of the first people in the Americas around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures formed. After European colonization of North America began in the late 15th century, wars and epidemics decimated indigenous societies. Starting in 1585, the British Empire colonized ...