HOW DID THE US MANAGE TO GET THE BORDERS IT CURRENTLY HAVE?
In the 1600s, a group of the English gathered going to America looking for wealth or religious freedom, which lead to spreading all over the area becoming a large country. They started off living in now called Jamestown, Virginia. Then they won the Revolutionary war to start a new country. While the natives were already occupying the land for thousands of years.
In this picture below, it shows the the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty and the land that was gained from Mexico after the Mexican-American War along with the Gadsden purchase which also brought many benefits to America. America would expand their land for crops, land, raise livestock, Gold, and faster travel with railroads but also own land cheaper with the Homestead Act.