If I knew the answer ,on this one, it would be in the trivia section.

Anyone knows how ranked USA in area worlwide when it was created in 1776?
Remember there was no Canada........etc....

So far, this is all I can find. Even this, however, is more than just the original 13 Colonies.

Source: Bureau of the Census, U.S. Dept. of Commerce
Original Territory - 1790 - 891,364 sq. mi.

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Originally posted by mozart56:
If I knew the answer ,on this one, it would be in the trivia section.

Anyone knows how ranked USA in area worlwide when it was created in 1776?
Remember there was no Canada........etc....

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Well, the Russian, Chinese and Ottoman empires were rather larger than the US at that time, as were the Spanish and Portuguese...

Alan Moore

In order to get the size of the United States in 1776, I contacted the Library of Congress, thinking that if anyone would know, the Library would. I was right, in a sense. No one knows, not now, not then. However, without going into the very detailed work that the Reference section and the Cartography Program did, I can tell you that an informed estimate of the Original Thirteen Colonies, minus the Western Territories is 237,372 square miles, slightly larger than modern France (211,xxx square miles).
As far as its rank in size, Alan points out the Russian, Ottoman, and Chinese Empires. Add to that, again from Alan, the Spain and Portugual and their possessions, along with France and her possessions and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Further, if we are counting Empires, England still had large holdings all over the world at that time. Without checking, I am sure that those eight mentioned above were all larger than the Original 13 Colonies. I can't think of any other country that would be larger at that time, if we are counting possessions. Possibly Holland, with its holdings in SE Asia may be one.
Much thanks to the Reference section and Cartography Program at the Library of Congress for their work on this.

Outstanding work, DG! I like when someone digs for gold the old fashioned way.

Darned right! I dug right in and asked someone else! And when I couldn't get my password to work on their site, I called them to clarify a point. I did it the hard way, too; I used the regular phone. No speaker phone for this guy!

Great work DG,I don't think there is much more to be found on the web, as far as accuracy is concerned.