Thirteen British colonies joined together to declare independence and form the United States.
The colonies stretched along the Atlantic coast of North America and were commonly grouped as New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Their names included Virginia, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia, and the two Carolina colonies. They had separate governments but shared growing opposition to British taxation and imperial control.
The Continental Congress represented the colonies during the crisis with Britain. In 1776, the colonies declared independence, and their wartime cooperation eventually produced the United States. The number thirteen later appeared in national symbols, including the original flag’s thirteen stripes and the Great Seal’s thirteen arrows.
The thirteen colonies were not the only British possessions in North America. Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and colonies in the Caribbean remained outside the group that declared independence. Another common mix-up is counting North and South Carolina as one colony; by the Revolutionary era, they were separate colonies.