ChatterBank0 min ago
American States
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Scarlett. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.If you look at the history of the US you will see that the first areas developed by the early settlers were on the east cost (New York etc), and by the spanish on the west coast (California etc).
These were not states, but colonies, like individual countries. Many had their own money and their own language (bit like Europe now).
The centre of the country was owned by France (not sure how) so not divided into states, it was just one huge mass of land.
The US then bought the land off the French in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase. see here: http://gatewayno.com/history/LaPurchase.html
But even at the beginining of the American civil war, the area was still one huge mass of land called the Territories. See here http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/elections/maps/1860.gif
Almost all the fighting in the US civil war went on at the east side of the country.
It was only after the civil war that the land was divided up into states, and because the land was so huge it was simply done using straight lines.