Thirteen colonies formed the United States before independence in the American Revolution. These British colonies occupied much of the Atlantic seaboard of North America and became the original states of the new nation.
The colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Their economies, religions, and political systems differed, but disputes with Britain helped unite them during the 1770s.
The phrase “thirteen colonies” refers to the colonies that declared independence and joined the Revolutionary cause. It does not include every British colony in North America; Quebec, Nova Scotia, and other territories remained outside the United States. Vermont was also not one of the thirteen colonies, although it later became the fourteenth state in 1791.