UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



5971 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



Growth in Area and in Population 



Territorial Expansion. At the close of the 

 Revolutionary War the United States com- 

 prised all of the territory within the present 

 boundaries east of the Mississippi, except 

 Florida ; the total area of the country was 827,- 

 844 square miles. Florida, which then included 

 the whole of the present state and a small 



Meanwhile, in 1846, the surrender of the 

 British claims to the Oregon country gave the 

 United States 288,000 square miles of additional 

 territory. A few years later the United States 

 bought from Mexico a small strip known as 

 the Gadsden Purchase (see page 2358). This 

 purchase established the boundaries of the con- 



LOUISIANA , 

 J PURCHASE 



ALASKA 



CEDED Etf 



RUSSIA 



1867 



strip of Alabama and 

 Mississippi south of the 

 thirty-first parallel, was 

 held by the Spaniards. 

 The greatest single ac- 

 cession of territory 

 came in 1803 by the 

 Louisiana Purchase 

 i which MT) ; this more 

 than doubled the area 

 of the country. By 

 of this purchase 

 the United States laid 

 claim to West Flor 

 h- Id by Spain, and troops actually occupied the 

 section during the War of 1812. The dispute 

 was settled in 1819 when the United States 

 purchased the whole of Florida from Spain. In 

 1845 the annexation and admission of Texas 

 add' 400,000 square miles, and the 



War added a still larger area (see page 



tinental area of the 

 United States as they 

 now oxi>t. Since then 

 all the territory ac- 

 quired has been outside 

 of the continental mass. 

 The first of these addi- 

 tions was Alaska, pur- 

 chased from Russia in 

 1887. For tlnrt\ 

 no further :iMition> 

 ::i:ulc. Then, in 

 1896, came a still more 

 radical step, the an- 

 nexation of the Hawaiian Islands, more than 

 2,000 miles from the nearest point m the conti- 

 nental United States. The 8p:r ican 

 War resulted in the acquisition of Porto Rico, 

 Guam and the Philippine Islands. In 1904 the 

 United States acquired certain rights over a 

 strip in Panama for the purposes of building 

 and operating a canal between the Atlantic and 



