For American people of British descent, see British American.
British America is the anachronistic term used to refer to the territories under the control of the Crown or Parliament in present day North America (including Bermuda), Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana. Colonial America consisted of the English and later British Empire in continental North America in the 17th and 18th centuries. Formally, the British Colonies in North America were known as British America[1] and the British West Indies until 1776, when the United States of America declared their independence. 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 20 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 from the British West Indies united together from 1867 to 1873 forming the Dominion of Canada. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.
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The Thirteen Colonies that formed the original states of the United States of America:
Other British colonies and territories (1763–1783) that eventually became part of the United States of America, which were ceded by Britain to Spain in 1783:
British colonies and territories that would eventually become part of Canada:
The colonies remaining under British rule after 1783: