Topics · AD 1776

American Declaration of Independence (1776)

In July 1776, the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, severing the political ties between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies.

On the map, this marked the transformation of separate British colonial provinces—including Massachusetts, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire—into thirteen sovereign states federated as the United States of America. While the Revolutionary War continued until the Treaty of Paris in 1783, 1776 established the core territorial identity along the Atlantic seaboard.

Drag the explorer’s year slider through the late 18th century to watch the former British colonial boundaries coalesce into the emerging United States and expand westward.

Sources

• Wikidata — United States Declaration of Independence
• OpenHistoricalMap

Wikidata: (Q127910)