United States State
A state in the United States of America , also short US state ( English US state ), is a member state . The United States is a federal state with currently 50 partially sovereign states. The first federal states emerged from the 13 colonies in 1776 with the ratification of the constitution . More came through expansions to the west, the Louisiana Purchase , the accession of the Republic of Texas and the conversion of Hawaii and Alaskain states too. Together with the federal district and the suburbs , the states make up the territory of the United States.
Four states - Kentucky , Massachusetts , Pennsylvania and Virginia - bear the formal designation Commonwealth without any further rights or obligations arising from it - in contrast to the Commonwealth Territories of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands .
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The American Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776 from the Kingdom of Great Britain created thirteen independent states (the respective signatories of the declaration in brackets):
- Connecticut ( Roger Sherman , Samuel Huntington , William Williams , Oliver Wolcott )
- Delaware ( Caesar Rodney , George Read , Thomas McKean )
- Georgia ( Button Gwinnett , Lyman Hall , George Walton )
- Maryland ( Samuel Chase , William Paca , Thomas Stone , Charles Carroll of Carrollton)
- Massachusetts , which at that time also included today's Maine ( John Hancock , Samuel Adams , John Adams , Robert Treat Paine , Elbridge Gerry )
- New Hampshire ( Josiah Bartlett , William Whipple , Matthew Thornton )
- New Jersey ( Richard Stockton , John Witherspoon , Francis Hopkinson , John Hart , Abraham Clark )
- New York ( William Floyd , Philip Livingston , Francis Lewis , Lewis Morris )
- North Carolina ( William Hooper , Joseph Hewes , John Penn )
- Pennsylvania ( Robert Morris , Benjamin Rush , Benjamin Franklin , John Morton , George Clymer , James Smith , George Taylor , James Wilson , George Ross )
- Rhode Island ( Stephen Hopkins , William Ellery )
- South Carolina ( Edward Rutledge , Thomas Heyward Jr. , Thomas Lynch Jr. , Arthur Middleton )
- Virginia , which at that time still included West Virginia ( George Wythe , Richard Henry Lee , Thomas Jefferson , Benjamin Harrison V , Thomas Nelson Jr. , Francis Lightfoot Lee , Carter Braxton )
The 13 states initially only formed a loose union of states , held together by the articles of confederation . A common federal state only came into being with the entry into force of the United States Constitution on March 4, 1789. With the years 1787 to 1789, 12 of the founding states are listed in the table. Rhode Island did not ratify the constitution until 1790. With the adoption of the constitution, the 13 states ceded the previously shared land gains between Appalachia and Mississippi to the Union, so that new states could gradually be formed there.
As early as 1791, the 14th state, Vermont , was formed from an area previously disputed between New York , New Hampshire and Massachusetts . In 1792, Kentucky became the first state west of the Appalachians , i.e. beyond the settlement limits for whites that were valid in colonial times. From 1796 to 1819 the states of Tennessee , Ohio , Indiana , Mississippi , Illinois and Alabama were formed in the territories conquered in 1783 . Louisiana was founded in 1812 around the city of New Orleans, which was bought by France in 1803 .
With this, and with the founding of Missouri in 1821, the first state completely west of the Mississippi , the weight shifted in favor of the slave-holding states. Therefore in 1820 the new free state of Maine was formed from the northeastern land reserve of Massachusetts . Arkansas and Michigan were added in quick succession as slave-holding and free states, respectively. In 1845 Florida , which was bought by Spain in 1819, became a state, as did Texas , which had separated from Mexico in 1836 (apart from the 13 founding states, the only state that was not formed from territory that had previously belonged to the United States). To compensate for these two slave states, Iowa and Wisconsin were added in 1846/48 .
After the gold discoveries in the newly acquired California in 1848 , the population grew so quickly that it was the first state on the Pacific to join the Union in 1850 . With Minnesota and Oregon two more free states were accepted, Kansas was only barely a slave-free state in 1861 after bloody fighting , one of the triggers for the civil war .
In 1861 eleven southern states left the union, which President Abraham Lincoln regarded as inadmissible and led to the civil war. The question of whether individual states had a right to secession from the Union of the United States was debated until the outbreak of the Civil War. The fact that the northern states loyal to the Union won the war led to the conviction that they did not have this right. In 1863 a new state was formed from the part of breakaway Virginia in the Appalachians, West Virginia . Nevada was incorporated to the west in 1864 .
From 1867 to 1890 almost all of the West was organized into states. Nebraska became a state in 1867, Colorado in 1876, exactly 100 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, and is therefore nicknamed Centennial State. In 1889 and 1890 the 6 states of Montana , North Dakota , South Dakota , Washington , Idaho and Wyoming were formed. Utah followed in 1896 as the last state before the turn of the century. The Indian Territory also became a state in 1907 as Oklahoma , and Arizona and New Mexico were added to the union in 1912 as the last of the 48 territorially contiguous states .
In January 1959, Alaska, bought by Russia in 1867, and Hawaii, annexed in 1898 (first state outside the continent of America) in August 1959, became the last states to become members of the Union (see 51st state and Continental United States ).
The capital district with the federal capital Washington, DC , is not organized as a state. Its residents do not take part in the elections to the Congress , but vote for the president .
The Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico are Commonwealth Territories, as mentioned above. Its residents count as American citizens, but are not eligible to vote in the federal organs unless they are resident in one of the US states. After the population of Puerto Rico had voted against membership in the Union as a state in three referendums (1967, 1993 and 1998), on November 6, 2012, in another referendum, a majority voted for Puerto Rico to become the 51st state in the United States target.
In October 2013, rural Colorado counties, such as Cheyenne, had certain tendencies to split off as New Colorado or North Colorado.
Relationship to the State as a whole
There is a clear separation of powers between the member states and the federal government : According to the constitution, the federal government only has those legislative powers that are clearly assigned to it by the constitution, the rest falls within the competence of the individual states. Each state has its own independent political system with its own constitution, directly elected governor , legislature , state administration and its own judiciary . The system of the individual federal states is less comparable with the German or Austrian federal states than with the individual member states of the European Union. Parliaments of states with few inhabitants are designed as after-work parliaments , with the meetings being concentrated in a few weeks a year. Populous states such as California and New York have full-time parliaments that operate similarly to federal congresses.
The US states also have their own police and armed forces in the form of militias as well as national and state guards , the supreme command of which lies with the governor.
American Post's addressing abbreviation
- States: two-letter abbreviations (see table)
- Federal District : DC = District of Columbia
- Island territories: AS = American Samoa , GU = Guam , MP = Northern Mariana Islands , PR = Puerto Rico , VI = US Virgin Islands
- Free Associated States: FM = Federated States of Micronesia , MH = Marshall Islands , PW = Palau
- Military regions: AF = Armed Forces Africa , AA = Armed Forces Americas (except Canada), AC = Armed Forces Canada , AE = Armed Forces Europe , AM = Armed Forces Middle East , AP = Armed Forces Pacific , APO = Army / Air Force Post Office, FPO = Fleet Post Office
- abolished abbreviations: CZ = Canal Zone , TT = Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
Lists and summaries of the states
- List of states in the United States
- According to area
- According to the number of inhabitants
- According to economic performance
- According to the poverty rate
- According to life expectancy
- According to fertility rate
- Nicknames
- State and Territory Mottos
- State symbols
- Flags and seals
literature
- Jörg Annaheim: The member states in the American state. Institutions and processes for safeguarding the interests of the member states in the United States of America. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-428-07441-6 .
- Daniel Elazar: American Federalism. A View from the States. 3rd Edition. Harper & Row, New York 1984, ISBN 0-06-041884-2 .
- Christoph M. Haas: The government systems of the individual states. In: Wolfgang Jäger, Christoph M. Haas, Wolfgang Welz (Hrsg.): Government system of the USA. Instructional and manual. 3rd Edition. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58438-7 , pp. 459-496.
- Wolfgang Welz: The federal structure. In: Wolfgang Jäger, Christoph M. Haas, Wolfgang Welz (Hrsg.): Government system of the USA. Instructional and manual. 3rd Edition. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58438-7 , pp. 69-98.
Web links
- nationalmap.gov - High-resolution map of the US states and the respective capitals ( Memento from April 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (English; PDF; 1.1 MiB)
- nationalatlas.gov - High-resolution map of the historical development of the USA ( Memento from November 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (English; PDF; 1.9 MiB)
- State Government , USA.gov
Individual evidence
- ↑ Referendum in the Caribbean: Puerto Rico wants to become the 51st state in the USA. Stern , November 7, 2012.
- ↑ Colorado farmers want secession - "There will be a revolution". ORF.at , October 12, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.51ststate.org/tp50/Default.asp?ID=314893 Website - The 51st State Initiative, accessed October 13, 2013.
- ↑ Birgitt Oldopp: The political system of the USA. 2005, p. 33 f.
| States: |
Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | California | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming |
| Federal District: | |
| Outside areas: |
American Samoa | US Virgin Islands | Baker Island | Guam | Howland Island | Jarvis Island | Johnston Atoll | Kingman attack | Midway Islands | Navassa | Northern Mariana Islands | Palmyra (Atoll) | Puerto Rico | Wake up |