The United States of America is the name given to the confederation of colonies that formed the country as early as 1775. Since the war of independence, these colonies have been looking to form a new country and a new identity, without the British Empire.
Benjamin Franklin is credited with the name of The United Colonies of North America. This name later turned to the United States of America.
The story of the USA name
Historians aren’t sure just how many times the name of the United States of America was used before it was accepted in the Declaration of Independence. But the United Colonies of North America was found 2 times in official correspondence. One newspaper of the era even printed the name.
After the Pennsylvania Evening Standard used this name for the first time, the name was proposed in Congress as an attempt to declare independence.
Multiple parties were involved in the creation of the Declaration of Independence. All of them began collaborating and they established the name of the United States of America. This was inspired by the United Colonies of North America but the name ‘states’ seemed more representative of the independent territories of the country.
The USA abbreviation
From here, the name of the United States of America went on to be known around the world. The name of the country was still known without abbreviation. But as united colonies, it already began the standardization process in many of its daily life aspects such as manufacturing.
The first manufactured good with the approval of government inspectors in the country was gun powder. But not all gun powder was genuine. How did the government ensure the people recognize genuine gun powder? They stamped it with the U.S.A. abbreviation making this version of the name grow in popularity and recognition.
The states that are united
All 50 states of the USA remained united by independence after this point. Each state has the freedom to elect officials and the freedom to create its laws. Some laws are federal, however. This means that even if a state can have distinct laws in some areas, it must abide by federal law if there’s one for a particular manner.
The name of the country and its legislative system was not easy to obtain. There was even a Civil War as these colonies did not get along too well on major topics. Slavery was one of the main topics that caused a lot of tension between the states.
The Northern States wanted to abolish slavery. Southern states wanted to maintain slavery. As a result, these 2 territories went to war. Eventually, they had to come together and form a constitution, which is a basic set of laws to guide the entire country by. What started as colonies turned into free-slavery states and then to the United States of America with a concomitant Declaration of Independence. Much of this recent history is documented. The Declaration of Independence can be seen in the National Archives of Washington DC.
