system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why did the US colonies form separately instead of just one big colony?

Most other countries like China or Russia formed as a big single entity so why did the US form multiple colonies which led to multiple states?
gpt
In places like China or Russia, you had one power trying to subjugate the others and establish a form of central authority. The strongest kingdoms conquered their neighbors and established a unified state. (In China, it fell apart several times and was then re-unified.) The history of the colonies in America is different.

In North America, different groups came to the country for different reasons. One difference was national--the governments of Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands wanted their *own* colonies that would benefit themselves. But especially among British settlers, each colony was also driven by different ideas. Some went to North America to develop prosperous plantations. Some went there to establish a new kind of society. Some wanted to escape war and persecution in Europe. The British crown granted each colony the right to have a limited kind of self-rule. Over time some colonies got merged, and the British conquered a lot of the foreign colonies.

Before the American Revolution, the colonies were still separate, even though they were all British. They built increasingly close relations with each other, for example they organized a joint defense during the French and Indian War. They saw they had a common interest. When they became upset with Britain, they decided to fight for independence together--different states, but all Americans, organized through the Continental Congress. Even after the Revolution it would take many years for people to see themselves as truly united. They developed a constitution that gave some power to a central government, but left most of the power with the states. The Civil War showed that the states were willing to use force to keep the other members a part of the Union. Especially in the 20th century, federal power increased a lot. But even today, people disagree about how much power should lie with the federal government versus the states individually.