U.S. state

A state of the United States, short U.S. state, is a member state of the United States of America. The United States is a federal state with currently 50 partially sovereign states. The first states emerged in 1776 from the thirteen colonies with the ratification of the Constitution, more came through extensions towards the west, the Louisiana Purchase, the accession of the Republic of Texas and the conversion Hawaii and Alaska in states' own. Together with the Federal District and the outer regions form the states of the American territory.

Four states - Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia - bear the formal designation Commonwealth hereof without further rights or obligations would arise - in contrast to the Commonwealth territories of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

History

With the Declaration of Independence ( Declaration of Independence ) July 4, 1776 from the Kingdom of Great Britain emerged thirteen independent states ( in parentheses are the respective signatories of the declaration):

• 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 the present-day Maine with ( 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 Iceland (Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery )
• South Carolina ( Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton )
• Virginia, which at that time also included the present-day West Virginia ( George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton )

The 13 states were initially only a loose confederation of states, held together by the Articles of Confederation. A common state was created until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States on March 4, 1789. This year 12 of the founding states are listed in the table. Rhode Iceland ratified the Constitution until 1790. With the adoption of the Constitution, the 13 states were the divided among them land before profits between the Appalachian Mountains and Mississippi to the Union, so that there could be gradually formed new states.

Already in 1791, was formed from a previously disputed between New York, New Hampshire and Massachusetts area of the 14th state, namely Vermont. 1792 became the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains formed with Kentucky, so beyond the valid in colonial times development boundary for whites. From 1796 to 1819 the states of Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois and Alabama were formed in the 1783 occupied territories. Louisiana was already formed in 1812 around 1803 purchased from France City of New Orleans.

This, together with the 1821 taking place founding of Missouri, the first completely lying west of the Mississippi State, the weight shifted in favor of the slave-holding states. Therefore, the new free state of Maine was formed in 1820 from the northeastern land reserve of Massachusetts. Arkansas and Michigan as a slave -holding or free state were briefly taken in sequence. In 1845, in 1819 purchased by Spain Florida State, just as Texas, which had dissolved in 1836 by Mexico (except the 13 founding countries of the only one who was not created from a territory which already belonged to the United States before). As compensation for these two slave states 1846/48 Iowa and Wisconsin taken.

After the discovery of gold in 1848 at the newly acquired California, the population grew so fast that it was recorded in 1850 was the first country in the Pacific to the Union. With Minnesota and Oregon two more free states were added, Kansas in 1861 after bloody fighting only just as slavery free state member, one of the triggers for the Civil War.

1861 came from eleven southern states from the Union, which was considered by President Abraham Lincoln as not allowed and led to the Civil War. The question of whether individual states have a right to secession from the Union of the United States was discussed until the outbreak of the Civil War. Winning the War by the pro-Union northern states led to the belief that they do not have this right. In 1863 they formed from the located in the Appalachian part of the Wayward Virginia a new state, West Virginia. In the West, 1864 Nevada was recorded.

From 1867 to 1890 almost the whole West was organized into states. Colorado in 1876, exactly 100 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our own state and therefore nicknamed the Centennial State. The Indian Territory was admitted into the Union in 1907 as Oklahoma State also, the last of the 48 contiguous states were territorially 1912 Arizona and New Mexico.

In January 1959, the 1867 Alaska purchased from Russia in August 1959 and were annexed Hawaii in 1898 ( the first country outside the continent America) as the most recent member States of the Union ( see also 51st state and Continental United States ).

Not organized as a state is the capital district of the Federal Capital Washington, DC Their citizens do not participate in elections to the Congress, but vote for the president with.

The Northern Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico are as mentioned above Commonwealth territories. Its inhabitants are as American citizens, but are among the federal institutions not eligible to vote, as long as they do not take up residence in one of the States. After the population of Puerto Rico in three referendums (1967, 1993 and 1998) had opposed the inclusion in the Union as a state, they advocated on November 6, 2012, in a further referendum majority that Puerto Rico 51st state of the United States should.

Currently ( October 2013 ) there are in rural counties of Colorado, Cheyenne about certain tendencies to split off as New Colorado or North Colorado.

Relationship to the overall state

There is a clear separation of powers between the states and the federal government: According to the Constitution, the federal government has only those legislative powers that were clearly assigned to it by the Constitution, the rest is the responsibility of the states. Each state has its own independent political system with its own constitution, a directly elected governor, a legislature, a state administration and its own judiciary. Parliaments of states with small populations are conceived as a celebration evening parliaments, where the meetings will be concentrated in a few weeks a year. Populous states like California or New York have full-time parliaments that are similar to the Congress at the federal level in their work.

The states also maintain their own distinct and separate police forces in the form of militias and national guards.

Adressierkürzel the American Post

• States: two-letter abbreviation ( see table)
• Federal District: DC = District of Columbia
• Island territories: American Samoa AS = GU = Guam, MP = Northern Mariana Islands, PR = Puerto Rico, VI = U.S. Virgin Islands
• Free Associated States: FM = Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands MH =, 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 symbol CZ = Canal Zone, TT = Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands

Lists and overviews of the states

• Alphabetically
• By population
• By area
• Nicknames
• State and territory mottos
• State symbols
• Flag and Seal