[aruanan]

“You do know there were people named Rodriquez and Garcia living in what became the United States long before people named Smith and Jone.”

Oh yeah?

Which Spanish colony occupied one of the original 13? Who displaced it?

Since obviously there were no Spanish colonies amongst the original 13 British colonies, which became the US of A...your statement is demonstrably false.

Spike, Spike, poor Spike. Learn to read English. "in what became the United States" doesn't mean exclusively "the original 13 colonies." It means, "in any place that at some point became part of the United States." Try California, Texas, the rest of the southwest, including Colorado, and Florida (as well as Puerto Rico and, for a short while, the Philippines).

[Spike Knotts]

“Learn to read English. “in what became the United States” doesn’t mean exclusively “the original 13 colonies.”

Yes, it does. If you had bothered to read, you know, English, you’d have saw that I already dealt with your point.

“What became the United States” were the original 13 colonies, nothing more. If you join after the United States already exists, you’re not “becoming” anything...you’re joining.

Or do you believe that the United States didn’t exist until Hawaii joined in 1959?

Could you by the same token assert that people with names like Mahaulu and Aneko lived in what became the United States long before people with names like Smith did, because of course they did...in Hawaii. So how much do we owe to our Polynesian Founding Fathers?

Feel free to argue that point all you want...but only the original 13 “became” the United States.