I googled 'Declaration of Independence'.

from Wikipedia:
"The United States Declaration of Independence is a statement adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies then at war with Great Britain were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire. Written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration is a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The birthday of the United States of America—Independence Day—is celebrated on July 4, the day the wording of the Declaration was approved by Congress."

from me:
We declared our independence, but had to fight a war to obtain it.  The American Revolution ended in 1783, at that time we became our own country. 

Prior to that we were colonies of Great Britain, only Great Britain, no other country, and not independent states or countries, that is, each colony did not have separate sovereignity.  And prior to that, the French & Indian War decided the conflict between France and England as to the possession of the NorthEast, with Great Britain winning the territory. 

We purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 for 15 million dollars ($11.5m cash and the rest cancellation of debts).

The original 13 colonies were never part of Mexico or France.

That youtube video shows only when each state was admitted to the Union (Union=United States), it does not show the acquisition of the territory in which a given state was located.  For example, the State of Louisiana was within the Louisiana Territory, but was not admitted to the Union until 1812.

The State of New York was one of the original 13.  Texas was an independent republic before being admitted to the Union.  I don't know about Washington State.

None of the 50 states were 'independent countries' (in the literal definition of that term) before admission to the Union.  They were either a colony or part of a territory. 

Any further contributions to this subject or corrections of anything I said are welcome.  I browsed Wikipedia for most of this.

Apex wrote on Sep 5^th, 2010 at 2:01pm:




Mexico never thought the Texas territory was
an independent republic. Mexican American war...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alamo

We didn't fight Spain until the Spanish -American War in 1899 (or so) but that was for Cuba and the Philippines (and Puerto Rico?), not any current state. We bought Florida from Spain, Texas won its own independence from Mexico, we won most of California, Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico after the Mexican-American War, and bought the rest of California, Arizona, and New Mexico from Mexico later. Most of the rest of the country, including Washington, was bought from France in the Louisiana Purchase.

Before 1776 we were 13 colonies of Great Britain, when we declared independence. Then we became 13 separate states with their own governments, under a central government in Philadelphia. We still had to write a constitution and win the war of independence, but we were basically an independent country by that point. I think France recognized us as such before 1783.