   Browse Collection by:  To Form a More Perfect Union   Between
1774 and 1789, 13 colonies became a nation - the United States
of America. In 1774, Great Britain's North American colonies
first came together to defend themselves against wrongs
committed by their "mother country." By 1789, these colonies had
become independent states, joined by a new federal constitution
into a single nation.  Assembling representatives from every
colony, the Continental Congress (1774-1789) began as a
coordinated effort to resist the British. With the outbreak of
the Revolutionary War, the Congress became the central
institution for managing the struggle for American independence.
Independence raised new issues. How could thirteen separate
self-governed states unite? What form would that union take? The
Articles of Confederation (1781-1789) were America's first
attempt to govern itself as an independent nation. They united
the states as a confederation - a loose league of states
represented in a Congress.  In 1783, with the