In 1776, Arizona belonged to Native Americans and Spain

• Arizona "was a concept that wasn't even in anybody's mind at the time in 1776," said Thomas E. Sheridan, a historian and professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Arizona.

State of play: Most of modern-day Arizona at the time was controlled by Native American tribes, including the Apache, Diné (Navajo), O'odham, Yuman and Yavapai peoples, Sheridan says.

• "Spanish and Mexican Arizona was really just a little finger of Sonora … poking down the Santa Cruz River," he told Axios.
• Spain had only "a little frontier area" in Arizona that was perpetually beleaguered.
• The Spanish had long sought to expand further into what's now Arizona, Sheridan said, but were blocked by the Apache and O'odham.

Most of the cities and towns in Arizona today didn't exist in 1776, but the Spanish had just founded Tucson as a military fort the year before, after relocating its Tubac garrison.

• In 1752, Spain established Tubac as its first garrison in what's now Arizona following an O'odham rebellion, Sheridan wrote in his book, "Arizona: A History."
• Jesuit missionary Eusebio Kino founded the San Xavier Del Bac Mission in 1692 near the future site of Tucson.

• Yuma wouldn't be founded until generations later by the U.S., but Yuma Crossing had been a popular spot to cross the Colorado River going back to 1540, and a Spanish expedition led by Juan Bautista de Anza famously crossed in 1774.

Flashback: Arizona remained part of New Spain until Mexico achieved independence in 1821.

• The U.S. took Arizona, along with the rest of what is now the American Southwest, at the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, and acquired the southern part of the state through the Gadsden Purchase in 1854.
• Abraham Lincoln signed legislation creating the Arizona Territory in 1863, and Phoenix was founded in 1881.
• Arizona remained a territory until 1912, when William H. Taft signed the act granting us statehood.