United Colonies
18th century political, military, and economic union of 13 crown colonies in British America, predecessor to the United States of America
The United Colonies, officially the United Colonies of North-America, was created in 1775 by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia as a newly formed proto-state comprising the Thirteen Colonies. In 1776, before and during America's declared independence, Continental currency banknotes displayed the name 'The United Colonies' from May 1775 until February 1777. The name was being used to refer to the colonies as a whole before the Second Continental Congress met.
Etymology
The precise place or date of its origin is unknown. John Adams used the phrase "united colonies" as early as February 27, 1775, in a letter entitled "To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay" published in the Boston Gazette: They have declared our cause their own—that they never will submit to a precedent in any part of the united colonies, by which Parliament may take away Wharves and other lawful estates, or demolish Charters; for if they do, they have a moral certainty that in the course of a few years, every right of Americans will be taken away, and governors and councils, holding at the will of a Minister, will be the only legislatives, in the colonies.
On June 19, 1775, the members of the Second Continental Congress called themselves the "delegates of the United Colonies" and appointed George Washington the "General and Commander in chief of the Army of the United Colonies".
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, after receiving instructions and wording from the Fifth Virginia Convention, proposed to Congress that they cut their political ties with Great Britain, declare themselves independent, and create a constitution. Known as the Lee Resolution, and passed by the delegates on July 2, 1776, it referred to the United Colonies, reading in part:
Resolved, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was overseen by the Committee of Five and written principally by Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia over a period of two weeks in June 1776.
On September 9, 1776, the Second Continental Congress formally dropped the name "United Colonies of North-America" in favor of the "United States of America" as in the July Declaration of Independence.
The public source identifies “United Colonies” as 18th century political, military, and economic union of 13 crown colonies in British America, predecessor to the United States of America. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, Colonies and 18th.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7887623. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1775, 1776 and 1777.
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This entry incorporates text from “United Colonies” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.