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The District of Columbia is also one of the political subdivisions of the United States. I also read somewhere that the Texas dividing into 5 other states is an urban legend, but I can't find it right this second. -- Zoe

• Sorry for a delayed answer, but I just recently noted your comment. The treaty negotiated between Texas and U.S wasn't ratified by U.S., further negotiations produced a congressional Joint Res (JR) in 1844 that supported Texas admission and had the 5 states (actually 4 additional) comment. The pre-admission Texas legislature passed a word for word identical resolution in July, 1844. BUT, when Texas was admitted again after the civil war the whole issue was dropped. Today it would take a building full of lawyers to write briefs on both sides of the can Texas unilateraly subdivide issue. Besides, except for a radical fringe, we don't want to.- Lou I 17:34 25 May 2003 (UTC)
  • I belive the "Texas can subdivide" issue related the entry of Texas into the Union: The treaty mentioned above merely meant that the Republic of Texas could, if it wanted, enter the Union as up to 5 states instead of one. But once it actually entered the Union as one state, this provision of the treaty was no longer meaningfull. Incidentally, the Constitution says that a state legislature can vote to split a state up, though Congress would have to approve the admission of each new state. This has happened once, in the case of West Virginia, though that situation was a bit dodgy. --jfruh

U.S. State

Shouldn't the first letter of "state" in this context be capitalized to distinguish it from state? --Jiang 07:41 30 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Er... Iraq is now a U.S. colony? I gotta turn on the news more often... -- Wapcaplet 19:42 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I looked around and couldn't find any corroborating evidence on this; there's some speculation that the Bush administration may want to turn Iraq into a colony. Looks like Mav already reverted it. -- Wapcaplet 19:53 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Is the formal status that Iraq is still an "occupied territory" that is being "administered" by the US-led coalition? Or something else? Martin

I errored the US is the "occupying power" not "colonial power" over Iraq. PeterK

It is the widely held perception that the American Civil War determined that it could not , though a good number of states' rights supporters assert that the American Civil War was conducted illegally or was not a definitive precedent.

I removed everything after "it could not". The secession of a U.S. State is not a serious proposition and its possibility is considered only by a handful of wackos and perhaps a handful of academics with no grasp on reality.

It didn't used to be such. The South is not the only area that ever wanted to secede. --Golbez 07:07, Sep 16, 2004 (UTC)

Two references to back up the assertion that the name California is Spanish in origin:

Both were found during aprox. 60 min. of web search, no other corroborating (sp?) or conflicting referrences were found. What they state is that California was named after the mythical paradise called Califia found in the book Las Sergas de Esplandián by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo written c. 1510.

Ducker 08:41, 25 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Where could I find a map of the United States where Alaska is to the same scale? I'l like to make a map for the Alaska page that has Alaska overlayed on the contenental U.S. to give a sense of scale.

I want to add a state mottos in Latin, but with all of my respect I will not do it alone, without discuss. So, How and Where I must add them...Alabama- Audemus iura nostra defendere - We dare defend our rights, Arizona- Ditat Deus - God enriches...etc. --Egon 14:14, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I know that I'm probably going to get yelled at but the United States actually does have "official" regions. They are the four regions that are used by the Census Bureau; Northeast, Midwest, West, and South. If we used these regions we could get regional information directly from the census bureau. Using this system may also put some of the "controversy" to rest over which state is listed in which region since this is how the Federal Government groups them. I know that several encyclopedias still use these regions, but the borders and members of the Southwest and Mid Atlantic are nebulous at best, are often gerrymandered, and vary from book to book. You can see how the Census Bureau divides the US at http://www.census.gov/geo/www/us_regdiv.pdf. I don't want to delete the other regions but these should take precedence over them. The regions are more cosmopolitan culturally and therefore less likely to have one culture dominate another. Please post on my talk page, or here. As of December 22, I received permission from Sfmontyo to convert us_regions.gif to the Census Bureau Model. Since this is a somewhat controversial topic I wanted to discuss it before I started any changes. I would appreciate any help resolving this issue. --JCarriker December 22, 2003

I have a comment - leave the biological references alone! When you alter Fouquieria to say American West, that implies the plants might be found in Washington state, which is completely misleading. When describing American Southwest, it's important to say that it's not an official census region, and to describe the range of interpretations (Arizona is always in, Utah maybe or maybe not). The concept of the Southwest is very familiar even if its borders are not, and WP performs a useful service by carefully describing the distinction. Stan 14:48, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

JCarriker,

I realize what you're trying to do with changing the regions of the US to match the government's... but I think that some discussion is warranted before obliterating all references to the Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, etc. While the government may break up the country in that way, the majority of the population uses Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, etc. You would be changing the meanings of many articles if you changed those references (like you did in the Dallas and DART articles), and going against years of historical use and generally accepted terms and customs.

I would suggest that you make a different map of the US with the 4 "official" regions, not simply replace the map of the "traditional" regions. Then create new articles for the official regions and retain the articles about Southwest and Mid-Atlantic etc. with references that those are commonly used but unofficial terms (like some of those articles have). Then add links to the official region names.

I think this would be simpler, more helpful and understandable to the general public, and a lot easier than facing the tide of resistance you'll face when changing all references to the Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, etc.

Thanks, Jfitts 16:16, 23 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I always have wanted to discuss this as I knew that it would be controversial. Also I have ridden DART and it is very nice! First of all it is not my intention to obliterate the Southwest or all references to it. The four regions should come into play only when broad generalizations are necessary. Otherwise their should be a listing of the states or parts of states that apply. If the meaning southwest was broadened to include California, as it sometimes is, then DART was not the first light rail in the southwest. Even if Texas were placed into the four region system, Atlanta would still have beaten it by two years. It was however the first light rail in Texas and therefore I changed it to Texas.

Now as to the history of US regions the southwest region, as it is applied on WP, is not historic but came into vogue in the mid-twentieth century. As late as the 1940’s both Arkansas and Louisiana were considered “southwestern states.” In many of the Articles include Nevada, Utah, and Colorado as southwestern states. In it’s broadest sense the 19th century included: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. This came about as the traditional boundary between east and west in 19th Century geography was the Mississippi River. All except about a fifth, including Baton Rouge and New Orleans in that eastern fifth, of Louisiana were west of the river. The concept of the “West” region as it is portrayed here is not even in context with the southwest region. By looking in any encyclopedia that has this display you would see that the “West” region is subdivided into the Mountain and Pacific regions. In this scheme it is likely that the south would be called Southeast and occasionally Kentucky and West Virginia would be place in the Mid West while Virginia would go with the Mid Atlantic states.

Also the South Central region is not listed and what of the Pacific Northwest? If WP keeps this current grid of regions soon people will start carving and gerrymandering, the map to create new or should I say old regions. These regions are set in stone, there is no debate about who goes where because the government has already decided. If we decided to use the regional statistics the Census Bureau compiles, we would find we couldn’t because the southwest has been carved out of the South and West and New England (which if any region is historic it is this one) and the Mid Atlantic are carved out of the Northeast, the data is worthless.

I’m not saying that these regions should be deleted, but should be treated as unofficialregions that in some instances share cultures. However they should be listed with other regions that the state is or was in for example.

Texas is a state in the US South. Texas is some times considered in the Southwest or South Central Regions. In the 19th Century Texas was briefly part of the Trans-Mississippi Region.

If Wiki adopted this it would be easier and more accurate for everyone. ---JCarriker December 23, 2003.