The United States is, shockingly, a bunch of states that are united. It was just 13 to start with, but as time marched on, the border marked west, bringing us to today and the 48 contiguous states
plus Alaska and Hawaii. They're usually drawn in these little boxes,
not to to scale because Hawaii is in the middle of a vast ocean of deadly nothing-ness,
and Alaska is monstrous. Unlike other unions, where members can leave
if they so choose, statehood is eternal. Even for you, Texas. Now, how the federal government works
is a story for another time, but at the moment, all you need know is that
Congress, where national laws are written is made of representatives who are sent
from the states. Now, there are some non-state gaps not
visible on this map. The first is Washington D.C.,
the nation's capital. which is a stateless limbo land
between Maryland and Virginia. As D.C. is a city without a state,
it puts her under the control of Congress. Meaning all the other states get the final
say on how D.C. is run, while she doesn't get a vote in anything. It didn't matter when the District of Columbia
was basically uninhabited, but since more people live in D.C. now
than do in a couple of states it's an uncomfortable arrangement. The other gaps on this map are the
American Indian reservations. which are numerous. The United States kind of administers them
while sort of treating them as foreign nations which means you could draw the state
boundaries to look like this because the reservations are kind of
apart from those states. But the American Indian reservations
are such a full of asterisks (O' so sensitive situation) it's also better as a story for
another time. Gaps aside, the continent (and Hawaii) is
mostly straight-forward. But there's more than just these
United States. When the U.S. ran out of lands
to manifest destiny, she learned from the best
and teritorified a whole bunch of islands. First up: Puerto Rico -
an organized, unincorporated territory of the U.S.
This means she's self-governing(to some extent) and that all the U.S. constitution doesn't
automatically apply on the island.
Now, 3.7 million people live in Puerto Rico which is 91% of the people living
on U.S. Territorial islands and more people than live in
21 of the states. And, the U.S. treats Puerto Rico
as a state in almost all but name which possibly soon
she will be anyway bringing the number of stars to a
nice, even, 51? But Puerto Rico isn't the only
organized, unincorporated territory. There's also Guam, which was acquired
in the Spanish-American war, along with Puerto Rico, there's
the Northern Mariana Islands, taken from Japan during World War II, and the U.S. Virgin Islands taken from
nobody -- Denmark sold her. The people in these territories are
American citizens. In most ways, the territories are
just like D.C. Congress can override their
local governments and they don't have representation because no state-tation. But otherwise, it's America. Actually, the territories and D.C. do
get to elect congressional representatives who attend all of the meetings but just can't vote in any of them. which is either the worst job in the world
or the best job in the world depending on the kind of person who gets it. Also, since votes for president are based
on state population, citizens in the territories can't vote. Which as mentioned in a previous video
leads to the weird situation that Americans who live in foreign countries
can vote for president in the state where they last lived. While Americans who live in America,
just in a territory, cannot. Along with these unincorporated organized
territories there are also unincorporated unorganized
territories. Actually, quite a few. They are Howland Island,
Navassa Island, Wake Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef,
Midway Reef, Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank. Most of these were acquired under the
delightfully named Guano Islands Act when the U.S. decided she wanted
a bunch of islands filled with bird poop. No, really, the U.S. just straight up
wrote a law to declare those islands were now hers. Unorganized, in this system, means there's
no local government on these islands because no one lives in these places. Some of them are barley above the water line. Now, the weird category is unorganized
incorporated territories of which there is one: the Palmyra Atoll. claimed by the U.S. after the totally
peaceful annexation of Hawaii. They're currently an uninhabited
nature reserve. But, incorporated means the U.S.
constitution applies here. To who? The Palmyra Atoll is like that
question about a tree falling in the forest. If there are no people for the constitution
to apply to, does the constitution still apply? Yes. This means if a foreigner gives birth
on this uninhabited strip and doesn't die from the nature, their child would be an American citizen. Now, this category is empty. It's where territories go
before they become states. When basically the Constitution fully
applies and it was last occupied by Hawaii. We've gone full circle but there is
one territory we've left out -- American Samoa: home to 55,000 people. Uniquely, American Samoans
don't get to be citizens but instead are American Nationals. They can live in the states but can't vote
in presidential elections Unless they go through the immigration
process like any foreigner. Even though in all other ways,
they're indistinguishable from citizens. This is unique to American Samoa
and there seems to be no reason for it other than that Congress has
gotten around to updating the system. American Samoa is in the
no-government category, like it's lord of the flies over there, which it obviously isn't. So American Samoa with it's organized
government needs to go over here and Puerto Rico, essentially a state,
needs to go over here and the empty Palmyra Atoll needs to go
over here. But, don't hold your breath for the
paperwork to make it's way through Congress any time soon. So, that's all the territories of the
United States, but there is one final thing to talk about: three tiny nations --
Palu, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia. The last has a convenient domain name: .fm --
first choice of quality podcasts everywhere. *hint, hint; click, click* These are separate countries
with UN seats and everything but they have a
"Compact of Free Association" with the United States. The deal is that the U.S. provide economic
support and military defense to the compact nations in return for being allowed
to build military bases there. Also, compact citizens can live and work
in the United States and vice versa. The Americans wanting to live abroad:
you have three easy options. So, that's America: 50 states,
many reservations, one district, lots of islands territories, some even
with people and three tiny associated countries.
Videos seem to being coming out faster now, seems like Grey is getting into a more effective routine for making his videos.
So could we compare the Indian reservations to Macau and Hong Kong? The reservations are "sort of" their own countries while "sort of" being under the control of the US government, though they're obviously not as well-represented in trade organizations or the Olympics...
So with places like Guam and the Guano Islands, do American citizens need passports to travel there? It's my understanding that Hawaii is considered a domestic flight, but Guam is much further than Hawaii is. Does the same rule apply?
Cool video! Does Guantanamo Bay fall in any one of those categories or is it a weird/special/separate case?
DC citizen here, still waiting for that voting to come through. take your time congress, I know you're very busy.
How about this for a 51 state flag?
You released this at the same time as Veritasium's new video. Let the race begin!
Listening to Hello Internet, saw on Twitter that Brady mentioned today was an upload day, now watching a new CGP Grey video. I need to diversify my edutainment.
Interesting video, as usual. Thanks.
Magic: the Gathering and CGP Grey converging? My life is now complete. You don't happen to play, do you Grey?