When the British colonies won the American Revolution, they created the “United States of America” with 13 states. As everyone surely knows, we now have 50 states.

How did we get from 13 to 50? Well, during early sessions of the U.S. Congress, lawmakers came up with some rules for the admission of new states into the union.

Several of the original states had British land grants that stretched all the way to the Mississippi River – the western boundary of the country.

But the vast majority of the people (not counting Native Americans) lived east of the Appalachian Mountains. So, the states agre...