British North America

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British North America consisted of the loyalist colonies and territories (i.e., post-1783) of the British Empire in continental North America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, the British Empire included twenty colonies north of Mexico. East Florida and West Florida were ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris (1783) which ended the American Revolutionary War, and then ceded by Spain to the United States in 1819. All but one of the remaining colonies of British North America joined together from 1867 to 1873 forming the Dominion of Canada. Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949.

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. Formally, the British Colonies in North America were known as "British America" and the "British West Indies" until 1783, and after that, "British North America" and the "British West Indies".

[edit] See also

• British colonization of the Americas
• British Empire
• British North America Acts
• British America
• British overseas territories
• British West Indies
• Canada