What Is The 51st U.S. State Going To Be?

States America is a country consisting of 50 states a federal district 5 major self-governing territories and various possessions but the way the territory is organized might change soon territories might become States and possessions might become territories so in this video I want to take a look at what might be the 51st US state a quick mention to let you know that this video is sponsored by world of warships today the US has 50 states but this number has changed a lot since its creation 13 colonies revolted against the British and one by one these initial 13 ratified the 1787 Constitution thus being admitted one by one into the Union Delaware was technically the first followed by the other 12 very soon after as time went by more and more territories became States and joined as well usually the progression was made east to west with the exception of the west coast California Oregon Nevada and Washington which joined before some of the Midwest the last continental state to join was Arizona in 1912 and Alaska and Hawaii were the final ones joining in 1959 with the American flag changing every time more states were admitted adding one more star birthdate and since 1959 for 61 years no other states have joined the Union but some could even if we set aside all the possessions which one could argue are too small to be estates the u.s. still have their Federal District five major self-governing territories and any of these plus some other specific ones could make a case for their admittance to the Union before that and very quickly like I mentioned today's video is sponsored by world of warships I know some times sponsored messages are annoying but they really do help the channel plus I think you will like this one world of warships is a free-to-play PC game but it's not like those other free-to-play games this one is actually good in it you can command some of history's most iconic war vessels unlocking new ships as you prepare the dominate the oceans you can command 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jurisdiction of the US Congress and the district is therefore not a part of any US state the state of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the Federal District Washington had an estimated population of seven hundred and two thousand people as of July 2018 making it the 20th most populous city in the United States it's also more populous just as a city than the state of Vermont or the state of Wyoming however despite all these people they don't really have representation going against the us's ideals in their revolt against the British of no taxation without representation DC has one delegate that a House of Representatives but he doesn't get the votes plus they don't have a Senate representative statehood would change this and allow the people who live there to have representation it would also allow full control of local authorities the territory since currently the final word of authority belongs to Congress itself but some people claim this wouldn't be a good idea the US like many other federal states has a capital Federal District this would eliminate that or they would have to create new laws that allowed the federal district to be inside its own state Brazil has Brasilia Germany has Berlin and both aren't States but exist within the federal system with their own specific status if Washington DC became independent it would rank 49th by population 51st by area 1st by GDP per capita 1st by median household income and 34 by total GDP in 2016 the mayor called for a vote and a proposed state constitution was released the vote happened and from those who voted 86% wanted statehood the flag could stay the same but it is arguable what they would call the new state I guess Columbia would be the best name some claimed new Columbia Potomac after the river or Douglas then we have the five territories these are American Samoa Guam the Northern Mariana Islands Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands let's start with you one most people argue should achieve statehood frederico it's located around 1600 kilometers off the coast of Florida to the south being a part of the Caribbeans where Rico has a very interesting situation it is the world's oldest colony it was first colonized by the Spanish in 1493 and since it remains as an unincorporated territory of the US since 1898 it's still technically considered a colony now of the Americans despite this where the Ricans have been US citizens since 1917 and can move freely between the island and the rest of the US like DC they have a non-voting representative in the house but no senators but only some residents pay federal income tax the territory's total population is approximately 3.4 million more than 21 u.s. States so it would become the 29th most populous should it joined the union in 2012 they voted in a referendum and the majority of people wanted to become a state in 2017 they avoided again and state her one with 97% although only 23% of people voted but there is also another option full on independence for instance the UN Special Committee on decolonization has often referred to Puerto Rico as a nation in its reports because internationally the people of Puerto Rico are often considered to be a Caribbean nation with their own national identity the u.s. itself seems somewhat divided as to whether they want where we go as a state or not various presidents throughout history publicly supported it like Ford Reagan Bush senior amongst others next we have Guam Guam is an organized territory of the United States in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean it's the westernmost points and territory of the United States the inhabitants of Guam are called Guam onions and they are American citizens by birth reaching in 2016 around one hundred and sixty three thousand people Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan while in the service of Spain was the first European to visit the islands in 1521 and it was also then colonized by Spain in 1668 during the spanish-american war the United States captured Guam in 1898 and after the peace treaty Spain permanently ceded into the u.s. it has some movements which advocate u.s. statehood or union with the state of Hawaii or union with the Northern Mariana Islands as a single territory or even independence apparently the local government has began a UN supported program to educate its people on what the different types of options they have free association statehood independence etc so that they can eventually hold a vote for it a 2016 poll conducted by the University of Guam showed a majority supporting statehood an unofficial but frequently used territory yamato is where America's day begins since it's close to the International Dateline so who knows maybe it'll be where America's new statehood expansion begins as well then there's an interesting case Chicago to be honest this one seems like kind of a joke and be very very very few people who advocate for it seem to be politically motivated other than any other type of ideal they're upset that the people who live in Chicago have according to them too much power over what goes on in the rest of the entire States essentially this would take the city of Chicago out of the state of Illinois and become its own independent states a bill was put forward at the State House to vote for this but it obviously got almost no support and failed the new state would either be called Chicago or New L annoy but let's be real here it's never going to happen another territory that could become number 51 is American Samoa American Samoa is also an unincorporated territory of the US located in the South Pacific Ocean southeast of the actual independent nation of Samoa being the southernmost territory of the US it has approximately 56,000 people and only 199 square kilometres although it's still slightly larger than Washington DC interestingly American Samoa is noted for having the highest rates of military enlistment of any US state or territory the Dutch were the first non-native to arrive in Samoa but the islands were then separated between Germany and the u.s. Germany took what is now the independent Samoa and the u.s. took their current territory this was around 1899 but their status has remained pretty much unchanged ever since apparently they explore the possibility of statehood in 2005 and 2017 but neither of the times did they manage to achieve the title of the 51st American state also they have one of the coolest flags ever Samoa is part of an archipelago that doesn't entirely belong to the US and the same case happens with the US Virgin Islands officially the Virgin Islands of the United States these are a group of Caribbean islands and an unincorporated and organized territory of the United States the islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located east of Puerto Rico and west of the British Virgin Islands which take up the rest of the archipelago previously known as the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark they were sold to the United States by Denmark in 1917 current estimates but the population at around one hundred and seven thousand there doesn't seem to be any effort towards statehood but in 1933 there was a status referendum where people got three choices one becoming a territory to integration this wasn't specified but I guess the only way would be statehood and three independence 81% voted to be a territory but participation was under 50% so the results were not valid however that is the current status of the islands today next and finally are the option of the Northern Mariana Islands the Northern Mariana Islands officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands or an insular area and Commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean the status of Commonwealth is reserved for only two u.s. territories the Northern Marianas and Puerto Rico this means essentially that the territory has its own Constitution and self-government and only through their own decision will these be revoked in order to fully be integrated in the US these were originally a Spanish colony then being ruled by Japan and then the u.s. until today the islands are home to around 54,000 people and it seems statehood is not on the agenda but there has been some discussion regarding the reunification of the Mariana Islands especially with Guam joining like we saw before there's also the case of the USS possessions like the minor outlying islands these are eight u.s. insular areas in the Pacific Ocean Baker Island Howland Jarvis the Johnston Aero Kingman reef Midway arrow Palmyra Atoll and Wake Island and one in the Caribbean Sea which is Anna Vasa Island except for the Palmyra Atoll all of these islands are unincorporated and unorganized territories as of 2019 none of the islands have any permanent residence so I don't think there's really any point to these being thought of as possible States in addition we have other examples of places that could have become US States but ever since gone a different path for instance the Philippines had a small grassroots movement for u.s. statehood it had a significant impact during the early American colonial period but is no longer a mainstream movement other possible states were mentioned on a video that I did a couple of weeks ago about proposed States that were never created like the state of Jefferson Deseret or Tex Lahoma if you want to see more about this go to my channel and check that video out and there is also a separate idea not of current States dividing or territories / possessions becoming States but of parts of other countries or entire other countries joining the Union some very small movements have existed in Canada which wanted some provinces to join the u.s. like Alberta or Quebec Cuba also had some movements that wanted to fully incorporated as part of the u.s. in 1870 the US Senate took a vote on an annexation treaty with the Dominican Republic but it failed to proceed in 1946 the u.s. offered to buy Greenland from Denmark for a hundred million dollars but then mark refused to sell it the Azores Portugal's archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic had a u.s. motivated movement to leave Portugal and join the US and there's also a few other examples so that was a quick over look at what the 51st state of the u.s. might be if it ever comes to exist maybe it'll be the capital Federal District maybe another random City maybe a territory maybe a possession or maybe even a part of a separate independent country from my perspective the most likely case if there is to be a 51st state is that it will be part of eco it's the one that makes most sense out of all these cases but who knows if you agree or disagree let me know in the comments below and tell me what you think the most likely and or best territory would be thanks so much for watching this video subscribe if you want to and I will see you next time for more general knowledge you

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 1,602,028

Rating: 4.8418479 out of 5

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist

Id: yUJbwvPexI4

Length: 16min 11sec (971 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Woodyville06]

Fucking Chicago? For real? Where did that come from?

[u/Gerry1of1]

None of them if they're smart. Territories to pay taxes like states citizens do. They get to vote in governor and local election but don't have the population to make a difference in a presidential election so why go for statehood?

[u/SemichiSam]

The guy they call Captain America wears the flag of Puerto Rico, so that should be the next state.