United States of America

State · 1776–2026 CE · at its largest around 1945 CE

Founded on Enlightenment ideals of liberty and self-government, the United States expanded across a continent at the cost of Native peoples and fought a civil war to end slavery. Immigrants, mass industry, jazz, Hollywood and the internet made it the most influential nation of the modern age.

Its battles, in Battle View

On its lands while it lasted

Middle Passage (c. 1526–1866 CE): The forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas. Of about 12.5 million people embarked between the 16th and 19th centuries, some 1.8 million died on the crossing.
Mughal Empire founded (1526–1857 CE): Empire founded by Babur that at its height ruled most of the Indian subcontinent, famed for its wealth, administration and architecture.
George Washington (1732 CE – 1799 CE): Commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and first President of the United States (1789–1797).
Industrial Revolution (c. 1760–1840 CE): The shift from hand production to machines, factories and steam power that began in Britain around 1760, centred on textile towns such as Manchester. It spread to Europe and North America and transformed work, cities and the world economy.
Napoleon (1769 CE – 1821 CE): Corsican-born general who seized power in France in 1799 and crowned himself Emperor in 1804. He conquered much of Europe before his defeat in 1815 and died in exile on Saint Helena.
American Revolutionary War (1775–1783 CE): War in which thirteen British colonies, aided by France, won independence and formed the United States of America.
US Declaration of Independence (1776 CE): Adopted by the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on 4 July 1776, it declared the thirteen colonies independent and asserted natural rights.
Simón Bolívar (1783 CE – 1830 CE): Caracas-born leader who led the independence of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spain, known as El Libertador.
Storming of the Bastille (1789 CE): On 14 July 1789 a Paris crowd seized the Bastille fortress-prison. The event became the symbol of the French Revolution, which overthrew the absolute monarchy.
Haitian Revolution (1791–1804 CE): Uprising of enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue that abolished slavery and created Haiti, the first state founded by formerly enslaved people.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 CE – 1865 CE): 16th President of the United States, who led the Union through the Civil War, issued the Emancipation Proclamation and was assassinated in 1865.
Napoleon’s invasion of Russia (1812 CE): Napoleon’s Grande Armée of over 600,000 crossed the Niemen in June 1812, fought at Borodino and occupied Moscow, but was forced into a winter retreat in which the great majority of the army was lost.
Battle of Waterloo (1815 CE): On 18 June 1815 Wellington's Anglo-allied army and Blücher's Prussians defeated Napoleon near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
First Opium War (1839–1842 CE): Britain defeated Qing China in a war over trade and the opium traffic, beginning China's "century of humiliation".
Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857–1858 CE): Uprising that began with a mutiny of sepoys at Meerut and spread across northern India, leading to the end of East India Company rule.