French Tricolor
Bicentennial Flag Memorial
With the Revolution won and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the United States was extended westward to the Mississippi River. To the west of the Mississippi, the French Tricolor waved over French Louisiana until the purchase of that huge territory by the United States in 1803. Spanish and later Mexican Flags also flew over a vast area of the west and southwest.
Only as the result of Treaties with Spain, the establishment of the Republic of Texas, settlements at the conclusion of the Mexican War and the Gadsden Purchase (1853) from Mexico did the United States come to own the old Spanish lands all the way to the Pacific Ocean. While the French Tricolor and Spanish Flags were being withdrawn from the North American Continent, British and Russian interests remained.
The Russian-American Company Flag flew over Alaska and an outpost in northern California. Also the Oregon Country was jointly occupied by the British and the United States until the "Oregon question" was answered by the forty-ninth parallel settlement of 1846.
By 1853, the main area of the United States had reached its present size. Russia withdrew in 1867 when Alaska was purchased and the United States was extended beyond the continental limits.
Courtesy hmdb.org
