In 1783, the Treaty of Paris officially concluded the American Revolutionary War, establishing the boundaries of the newly formed United States. The nation’s territory extended from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Mississippi River in the west, northward to the Canadian border, and southward to the Spanish colonies in Florida.[1] Although this agreement significantly enlarged the United States, much of the land remained unsettled wilderness, with the population concentrated along the Atlantic coast. Today, the United States spans from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, including Alaska in the north, Hawaii in the Pacific, and various territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. This westward expansion was profoundly shaped by the 19th-century ideology of Manifest Destiny, which posited that the United States was destined to expand across the continent.