U.S. state
A U.S. State is any one of the fifty states which is a member of the federation known as the United States of America. Sovereignty is divided between the individual states and the federal government. Under the United States Constitution, the federal government can legislate only on matters explicitly delegated to it by the Constitution, with the remaining governmental powers belonging to the states.
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2 List of states 3 History 4 Various facts about the states 5 Grouping of the states in regions 6 See also 7 Related links |
Map
List of states
The states, with their US postal abbreviations and capitals, are:
In addition to the states, several other areas belong to the United States:
- AS American Samoa
- DC District of Columbia, which is the seat of the Federal government
- GU Guam
- MP Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth
- PR Puerto Rico, Commonwealth
- VI the U.S. Virgin Islands
- Midway Islands
- Guantanamo Bay (the US has "complete jurisdiction and control" under a lease from Cuba, which retains ultimate sovereignty)
Unlike states the authority to rule those areas comes not from the people of those areas but from the Federal government, however in most cases Congress has granted a large amount of self-rule.
History
Upon the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, there were 13 states. States can be admitted to the Union by Congress.
The Constitution is silent on the issue of the secession of a state from the United States. The Civil War was fought to prevent states from leaving the Union. Some people claim that it is still not established whether any state can secede legally.
Various facts about the states
- Four of the states are called formally commonwealths: Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In these cases, this is a merely a name and has no legal impact. However, the United States has non-state areas called commonwealths (Puerto Rico and the Northern Marianas) which do have a legal status different from the states.
- "Georgia" is the name of both a U.S. state and an independent country in the Caucasus.
- "New York" is all three: a state, a county in that state, and a city in that state.
- "Washington" is a state, a city corresponding to the District of Columbia (and thus not part of any state), and a number of cities and counties in various states. The state Washington is the only one named after a U.S. President (or after a person born within the U.S., for that matter).
- One state upon joining the United States was granted the right to divide itself into up to five separate states. This was a condition of the statehood of Texas.
- Only two states have state capitals named for the state (however, this is a very common practice with states and provinces in other countries, where the state or province is actually often named after the capital city): Oklahoma, with capital Oklahoma City, and Indiana, with capital Indianapolis (which means Indiana City).
- State names speak to the circumstances of their creation.
- Southern states on the Atlantic coast were former British colonies named after British monarchs: Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland. Some northeastern states, also former British colonies, are named after English counties: New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York.
- Many later states were named after indigenous Indian tribes: Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Mississippi, and more.
- Southern states have Spanish names since these territories were originally controlled by Spain or Mexico: California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Texas, and perhaps Arizona.
Grouping of the states in regions
States may be grouped in regions. There is much debate over which states are included into regions. The only regions that are clearly defined are those used by the U.S. Census Bureau. There are many possible groupings. Here are some of them:
U.S. Census Bureau Regions:
- The West
- The Midwest (in the north, and with respect to east-west direction in the east central)
- The South
- The Northeast
See also
- List of U.S. states by population
- List of U.S. states by area
- List of U.S. states by unemployment rate
- List of U.S. state nicknames
- List of U.S. state flags
- List of U.S. states that were never territories
- Etymological list of U.S. States
- Traditional U.S. state abbreviations
- List of regions of the United States
- List of state capitals and former capital cities in the United States
- United States territory
- Geography of the United States
- Counties in the United States
- Codes: state codes, U.S. postal abbreviations, FIPS state code, ISO 3166-2:US,
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