Thirteen original British colonies became the first states of the United States.
These colonies stretched along the Atlantic coast from New Hampshire to Georgia. Their names were New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
The colonies developed under different charters and local political systems, but they coordinated resistance to British policies during the 1770s. Representatives from all thirteen eventually participated in the movement that created the United States.
The colonies declared independence in 1776 and won recognition as an independent nation in the Treaty of Paris in 1783. They did not all become states at exactly the same moment in constitutional practice, but together they are conventionally called the original thirteen states. Vermont, admitted in 1791, was the first state added to the Union after them.