Editing East Coast of the United States (section)

==Colonial history==
{{Further|Colonial history of the United States}}
The original [[Thirteen Colonies]] of [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] in [[North America]] all lay on or near the East Coast.{{efn|Those colonies were New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. While Pennsylvania is not directly along the Atlantic shoreline, it borders the tidal portion of the Delaware River and the city of [[Philadelphia]] was a major seaport.}}

Two additional U.S. states on the East Coast were not among the original Thirteen Colonies: [[History of Maine|Maine]] became part of the English [[Colony of Massachusetts]] in 1677<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/895/page/1306/display?page=3 |title=1500-1667 Contact & Conflict |website=Maine History Online |access-date=September 21, 2018 |archive-date=September 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919061741/https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/895/page/1306/display?page=3 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[History of Florida|Florida]] was held by the British from the end of the [[French and Indian War]] until 1781 and was part of [[New Spain]] until 1821. 

In present-day Florida, Spanish explorer [[Juan Ponce de León]] made the first textual records of the state during his 1513 voyage. The state was initially named for Ponce de León, who called the peninsula La Pascua Florida in recognition of the verdant landscape and because it was the [[Easter]] season.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flheritage.com/facts/history/summary/index.cfm |title=A Brief History - Florida Department of State |website=www.flheritage.com |access-date=November 6, 2012 |archive-date=October 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030163435/http://www.flheritage.com/facts/history/summary/index.cfm |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Delaware Colony]] and the provinces of [[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]], [[Province of New York|New York]], and [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]] had been colonized by [[Dutch Republic|the Dutch]] as [[New Netherland]] until they were ceded to the [[Kingdom of England|British]] in the mid- to late-17th century.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}Until 1791, [[Vermont]] was an independent nation as the [[Vermont Republic]].