With a territory of 9.37 million square kilometers, the fourth largest in the world (9.63 million and 9.82 million square kilometers), how did the United States 🇺🇸 go from a wild land to a world superpower? Why can it be bigger, but give up a lot of opportunities for territorial expansion?
The Americas were originally the residence of the Indians, at the end of the 15th century, after Columbus discovered the New World, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Britain and other countries rushed to the Americas, establish colonies, after years of competition and development, the vast North America mainly became the colonies of France, Britain and Spain!
In the more than 150 years from 1607 to the middle of the 18th Incident, Britain gradually established 13 colonies on the Atlantic coast in the east, which became the foundation of American independence, covering an area of about 800,000 square kilometers!
On July 4, 1774, the United States issued the "Declaration of Independence" and announced the establishment of the country, with the help of France, Spain and the Netherlands, the United States won the war of independence against Britain in 1781, and signed the "Paris Peace Treaty" between the United States and Britain in 1783, which not only achieved independence, but also obtained about 1.5 million square kilometers of vast land on the east bank of the Mississippi River, becoming a 2.3 million square kilometers of American power!
Second expansion: Louisiana 2.6 million square kilometers! In 1800, Spain ceded the Louisiana area of the Mississippi River West to France, and due to the failed invasion of Haiti in 1803 and the fact that France's power in the Americas was not as good as Britain, it sold about 2.6 million square kilometers of land in Louisiana to the United States at an ultra-low price of $15 million in 1803, doubling the territory of the United States to 4.9 million square kilometers!
Third expansion: In order to annex West Florida, the United States emigrated to Florida, eventually forcing Spain to abandon the West Florida area in 1810!
Failed annexation of Canada: From 1812 to 1815, the United States sought to annex Canada and initiated the Second American War of Independence, also known as the War of 1812. In this war, the United States did not annex Canada, but was occupied by the Canadian militia and British troops, even the White House was burned, and the two countries fought to a draw, which is why the United States did not annex Canada, and the United States did not complete the purpose of territorial expansion! However, the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of 1818 in 1818, stipulating that the 49° north latitude between the Rocky Mountains and the Minnesota region is the boundary between the United States and Britain (the origin of the US-Canada border), and the two countries west of the Rocky Mountains are jointly managed, although they did not achieve territorial expansion, but also laid the foundation for the westward expansion of the United States!
Fourth expansion: In 1819, the United States finally acquired East Florida from Spain for $5 million, covering more than 5 million square kilometers.
Fifth expansion: In 1846, the United States obtained the Oregon area originally administered by the United States and Britain through the US-British Oregon Treaty, expanding by 250,000 square kilometers!
The Sixth Expansion: Under the influence of the "Manifest Manifest Destiny Theory", the United States continues to expand wildly to the west with immigration as the lead! Finally, through the war against Mexico, from 1846 to 1848, it obtained 2.3 million square kilometers of vast land such as Texas, New Mexico, and California in northern Mexico, and achieved the hegemony of the United States!
Seventh expansion: In 1853, the United States forcibly purchased 77,000 square kilometers of Mexico's narrow grassland for $10 million, historically known as the "Gatesden Purchase".
Eighth expansion: In 1853, the Crimean War broke out, due to Alaska's isolation from the Americas, Tsarist Russia had weak control, and in order to prevent it from being occupied by Britain, it was finally sold to the United States in 1867 for a super low price of 7.2 million US dollars, making the territory of the United States expand again by more than 1.71 million square kilometers!
Ninth expansion: The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 and became the 50th state of the United States in 1959, with an area of 16,700 square kilometers!
Other expansions: At the end of the 19th century, the United States at the end of imperialism frantically grabbed overseas colonies, and in 1898 the United States launched a war to seize Spain's colonies in the Americas and Asia, Cuba, Puerto Rico (9104 square kilometers) and the Philippines (300,000 square kilometers), and gained control of Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines! But for these regions, the United States did not choose to annex them all, but more about economic control! In the case of the Philippines, annexation was not in the interest of the United States, which forced the Philippines to become independent in 1946; The United States has not yet agreed to Puerto Rico's application to join the United States, etc.; It's also about islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and more!
It is through this 10 main expansions that the United States has become a superpower with nearly 10 million square kilometers of land and 12.17 million square kilometers of the world's largest territorial sea area, from 800,000 square kilometers of land! It can be said that the opportunity for the United States 🇺🇸 is too good!
It could have been bigger, but why didn't the United States annex the rest of Mexico, as well as the Philippines?
What do you think about this?
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