as it stands there were 50 states but I think some of them are pretty pointless
there's no reason for two Dakotas to exist but that's a story for another day
these states were not established overnight it was a very gradual process
the last state being admitted in 1959 along the way many states were proposed
that never materialized for a while it was proposed that Long Island become
its own state, rather than remain part of New York
many today advocate for Puerto Rico to become America's 51st state maybe it
soon will be or maybe not either way we can all agree there should not be two
Dakotas
there's something strange looking about Idaho's northern region known as the
Idaho Panhandle so it's no surprise many believe it should not be part of Idaho
but a theoretical new State called Lincoln as well as the Panhandle, Lincoln
would include most of what's now Washington with the city of Spokane
being its capital strangely the establishment of Lincoln was first
proposed in 1865 by the government of Idaho with the only recently created
state of Idaho having a low population officials were eager to reduce its land
area thereby making it more manageable for whatever reason no one took them up
on this offer and Lincoln was never created but the ideas stuck even growing
in popularity as time went on today many in eastern Washington see the concept of
Lincoln as a way of gaining political influence that region of Washington is
generally more conservative and more populous West maybe if they were part of
Lincoln those people would be better represented
by the mid-1800s America's Mormon community began to desire their own
homeland somewhere isolated where they could establish a new society based on
the Mormon way of life soon they heard of a remote water basin surrounded by
desert the Great Salt Lake was the perfect location for what they desired
and so they began big dangerous journey initially this territory was part of
Mexico but a brief war took care of that now part of the United States Mormon
settlers in his Salt Lake Valley proposed for government grants them a
state but for some reason the state they wanted was to be gigantic covering much
of California Nevada Arizona Colorado and Oregon
Salt Lake City being their capital it was to be a Theodemocracy, a strange fusion
of American democracy and Mormon theology as proposed by their founder
Joseph Smith They called this state Deseret which apparently means honeybee in some
strange ancient language the US government never sanctioned Deseret but
the concept laid the groundwork for Utah which still now remains the only Mormon majority state
until 1907 the state of Oklahoma did not exist instead it was
divided into two territories Oklahoma Territory inhabited by white settlers
and Indian Territory inhabited by natives but it was clear to all this
arrangement could not last and debate raged over what was to be done with the
area one suggestion was that the Indian Territory become its own state with
federal recognition where state would have a native governor and a state
legislature made up entirely of natives a great assembly of native tribes was
convened where they drew up a constitution for this potential state
naming it Sequoyah then they sent a delegation to propose their cause to
President Roosevelt. Roosevelt heard him out but instead proposed a
compromise the two territories would become a single state of Oklahoma but
the constitution of Oklahoma would include many elements of the Sequoyah plan
and so Oklahoma became America's 46 state and the state of sequoyah forgotten
during the civil war Tennessee was among the Confederate states attempting to
secede from the union but not everyone in Tennessee was happy about that
in fact the small county of Scott decided itself to secede from Tennessee
but instead of joining with Kentucky it declared itself a new state being small
and of little strategic value the confederates simply ignored Scott County
allowing them to act as a real pro Union state the state was never recognized by
the US government or by the government of Tennessee but for a long time it
effectively was its own state in fact the county only repealed its claim of statehood in 1986
just after the American Revolution North Carolina was a
lot bigger than she now is but to help their new country pay off its war
debt that they offered Congress all their territory west of the Appalachian
Mountains they had given away more than 29 million acres of land but it was
unclear what Congress would do with said land some suggested they sell it to
France or even back to England but then in 1784 a group of settlers here
founded their own republic in the hope of it becoming the 14th state
they called it Franklin hoping Benjamin Franklin himself would support their
cause he never did but their plan almost worked when the settlers applied for
statehood seven of America's 13 states voted for approval yet this was not
quite the required two third majority and the effort fell through for several years it
existed as a de facto separate state but is now part of Tennessee
Michigan is made up of two separate peninsulas with all major settlements in
the Lower Peninsula the Upper Peninsula accounts for 29 percent of Michigan's
land area but only three percent of her population because of this and to be
gigantic lake between them the people of Upper Michigan have always felt
different to those in the south so for a long time there have been calls for
northern Michigan to become its own state even Thomas Jefferson at one point
called for a new state here steadily these calls grew through the 19th
century but only in the 1960s did it become something worthy of consideration
by 1962 20,000 people signed a petition to secede from Michigan but authorities
ignored the petition because of course they did
believe it or not there was nearly a state called Transylvania
just one year before the American Revolution settler Richard Henderson bought a huge patch of land from its native
inhabitants covering much of what's now Kentucky the land was valuable but
difficult to reach he had to hire a specialist to create a migration route
to the area which came to be known as the Wilderness Road with a group of
settlers he established the colony of Transylvania hoping it would soon gain
legal recognition however the Virginia and North Carolina
both claimed four land he had settled so that never happened
still they continued to live on the land and establish their own society after
independence they appealed to Congress hoping Transylvania would become the
14th state their appeal was largely ignored
Washington DC is the capital of America but is not part of any state as a
federal system it was decided no one state should have the privilege of
housing the national capital so in 1790 a special administrative
region was created for this purpose now known as Washington DC to this day the
people who live here are stateless and have no elected members of the Senate
obviously they have always been residents here disillusioned with this
arrangement for generations they have campaigned for DC to be granted
statehood in 1993 then President Bill Clinton endorsed the effort and a bill
was introduced to Congress while it was defeated in the house few proposed states ever get this close
in 1941 the mayor of a small Oregon town suggested
that some parts of southern Oregon merge with northern California his
arguments were simple these parts of oregon and california were heavily
rural and their specific needs were being ignored in favor of those in urban
areas like portland and to be fair he had a point armed rebellions began to
break out in the region and it seemed like the start of a major political
movement they even appointed a governor of his state of Jefferson as by then
they were calling it but then Pearl Harbor happened and the movement stopped
in his tracks today Jefferson would have a population
of 2.4 million and be the 18th largest States by land area
In the same way Puerto Rico almost became a US state so did Cuba by the late 19th century Cuba
Puerto Rico and the Philippines were still Spanish territories but the Spanish
Empire had grown old and weak then in 1898 of the United States declared war
on Spain in less than four months it was over and America had taken control of
Cuba Puerto Rico Guam and the Philippines in all but name the United States
was now an imperial power but it was unclear what would now be done with
these new lands many argued they all become States and be admitted to the
Union for a while this was serious considered while Guam and Puerto Rico
remain part of America the Philippines gained independence in 1946 and Cuba in
1902 but even after independence Cuba
remained a virtual puppet state of the US that's why the US government was so
shocked by the Cuban Revolution it felt to them like a personal betrayal