America at 250: How the United States Grew on the Map
Published 4 July 2026
The Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776. Follow the United States from thirteen colonies to a continental nation.
On 4 July 1776 the Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted the Declaration of Independence. 2026 marks its 250th anniversary.
The war had begun at Lexington and Concord in 1775 and effectively ended with the siege of Yorktown in 1781. The Treaty of Paris of 1783 recognised the new republic, with a western border on the Mississippi.
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 roughly doubled its size; the annexation of Texas and the Mexican–American War carried it to the Pacific by 1848; Alaska was bought in 1867 and Hawaii annexed in 1898. Watch the change with the 1783 vs 1880 comparison.
Open 1783 in the interactive map
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Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.