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