On July 4, 1776, thirteen British colonies on the east coast of North America announced their independence from Great Britain. Those colonies included Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Vermont joined the rebellion in 1777. Their victory from Great Britain was not assured, and they had no plans to conquer all the lands west of their borders. However, when the American Revolutionary War ended on September 3, 1783, The United States of America and Great Britain signed the Treaty of Paris. This treaty gave the United States all territory east of the Mississippi River, including land which will become Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and parts of what are now Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. This was a sensible arrangement for the new United States. Without the acquisition of those lands, the new country would have had its enemy along a very long border. France had ceded this land to Great Britain in 1763 via a treaty. The Treaty of Paris gave the United States a border with Spain along the Mississippi River and the Floridas. To the north, much of the border was with France.
             On April 30, 1803, The United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from Spain for $15 million. This land included what is now Arkansas, part of Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, and part of Minnesota, Missouri, and part of Montana, part of North Dakota, part of Oklahoma, South Dakota, and part of Wyoming. Americans were already moving further and further west, and this migration continued. In 1819, a treaty between the United States and Spain gave the Floridas to the United States. This ended a colorful series of claims, counter-claims and military skirmishes over this territory. April 1, 1844: The United States signed the Adams-Onis Trea...