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For American people of British descent, see British American.
British America consisted of the English and later British Empire in continental North America in the 17th century and 18th century. Formally, the British Colonies in North America were known as "British America" and the "British West Indies" until 1783, when Britain recognized the United States of America as a sovereign nation. After that, "British North America" (or, simply but not inclusively, "Canada") were used to describe the remainder of Britain's continental North American possessions. The term "British North America" was first used informally in 1783, but it was uncommon before the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839), called the Durham Report.
British America gained large amounts of new territory following the Treaty of Paris which ended Britain's involvement in the Seven Years' War. At the start of the American War of Independence in 1775, the British Empire included twenty colonies north and east of New Spain (Present day areas of Mexico and the Western United States). East Florida and West Florida were ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the American Revolution, and then ceded by Spain to the United States in 1819. All but one of the remaining colonies of British North America apart the British West Indies joined together from 1867 to 1873 forming Canada. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.
List of colonies in 1775
The Thirteen Colonies that formed the original United States of America:
- Province of Massachusetts Bay
- Province of New Hampshire
- Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
- Connecticut Colony
- Southern Colonies
- (depending on the subject under discussion, Virginia and Maryland may be grouped as the Chesapeake Colonies)
- Province of Maryland
- Colony and Dominion of Virginia (of which Bermuda was originally an extension)
- Province of North Carolina
- Province of South Carolina
- Province of Georgia
Remaining colonies that became a part of British North America after American independence was recognized by Great Britain in 1783:
- Province of Nova Scotia
- Colony of Newfoundland (Labrador attached to Newfoundland in 1763)
- Province of Quebec
- Island of St. John
- Rupert's Land
Other British Loyalist colonies (1763-1783) that eventually became part of the United States of America, which were ceded by Britain to Spain in 1783:
- Province of East Florida
- Province of West Florida
In addition, the Crown held as direct territory/crown property the mostly unsettled (by colonists of European descent):
- Indian Reserve, which compromised in the United States all of the future Northwest Territory, states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and most of Alabama and Mississippi, and in Canada, the northern shores of the Great Lakes and the northern part of present-day Quebec not already included in Rupert's Land.
See also
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