Is puerto rico a us state or territory: Why Isn’t Puerto Rico a State?

Puerto Rico wants statehood – but only Congress can make it the 51st state in the United States

Puerto Ricans requested statehood on Nov. 3, 2020, with 52.3% of voters asking to change the island’s status from unincorporated territory to U.S. state.

This is the sixth time statehood has been on the ballot since Puerto Rico ratified its Constitution in 1952. Voters rejected the status change in 1967, 1993 and 1998.

The 2012 election results were unclear because some voters did not answer both parts of a two-part statehood question. In 2017 statehood won decisively, albeit with very low turnout of around 23%.

Puerto Rico didn’t become the 51st state then, and it is unlikely to achieve statehood any time soon. Only Congress can add new states to the Union, via an Admission Act or House Resolution that requires approval by a simple majority in the House and Senate.

Territorial status

The United States wrested Puerto Rico from Spain in the 1898 Spanish-American War, along with Cuba, the Philippines and the Mariana Islands.

Shortly after, a series of Supreme Court rulings called the “Insular Cases” – made by the same court that found racial segregation constitutional in Plessy v. Ferguson – deemed most of America’s new territories to be inhabited by “alien races,” ungovernable by “Anglo-Saxon principles.”

These cases labeled America’s island territories as incorporated or unincorporated, each with a different set of rights. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory. It is similar to U.S. states in many ways but its taxpaying residents lack voting representation in Congress, cannot vote for president and do not enjoy all the same constitutional rights as other Americans.

Without a vote in Congress, Puerto Rico’s needs are not well represented in Washington.

The line to vote in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Nov. 3, 2020.
Alejandro Granadillo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Puerto Rico’s legal status all but defines politics on the island.

Rather than offering clear left- or right-wing policies, Puerto Rico’s two main political parties are traditionally defined by their stance on statehood. The Popular Democratic Party generally favors keeping Puerto Rico a territory; the New Progressive Party is pro-statehood. Both have Democratic- and Republican-aligned members.

The New Progressive Party’s grip on the statehood cause loosened in 2020. Some 215,000 Puerto Ricans who voted for statehood voted against its pro-statehood gubernatorial candidate, Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, who won his race very narrowly. The New Progressive Party’s candidate for resident commissioner – Puerto Rico’s nonvoting delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives – received 132,000 fewer votes than statehood did.

Statehood in 2020

All these split tickets reflect a broader political upheaval taking place in Puerto Rico after a rocky half-decade.

Since 2015, Puerto Rico has defaulted on parts of its debt, undergone a fiscal crisis, been ravaged by Hurricane Maria and survived a rare series of “cluster earthquakes. ” Economic recovery has been weak and disaster recovery since Maria was botched by local corruption and federal indolence.

Discontent with Puerto Rican leadership, aggravated by the fiscal austerity imposed by a Washington-controlled federal board, culminated last year in massive protests. Gov. Ricardo Rosselló Nevares stepped down in August 2019.

Protesters in Old San Juan celebrate after Ricardo Rosselló stepped down on Aug. 2, 2019. A sign reads ‘Bye, bye Ricky. Thanks for nothing. See you never.’
Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

After Rosselló’s resignation, his New Progressive Party had a very public fight regarding the succession process. A chaotic primary pitted its Republican- and Democrat-aligned factions against each other.

All the drama and corruption seems to have left many statehood supporters in Puerto Rico fed up with the New Progressive Party, and politics in general.

By the 2020 election, new parties with clearer ideological offerings – like the progressive, populist Citizen Victory Movement and the right-wing, religiously based Dignity Project – had cropped up. These upstart parties – along with Puerto Rico’s longstanding third party, the independence-minded, social-democratic Independence Party – pledged to make government work better, and some outsider candidates actually won.

Puerto Rico’s new parties mostly did not endorse a particular choice on the 2020 statehood referendum, promising to respect whatever the result was.

Some third-party candidates did float alternatives to Puerto Rico’s frequent, nonbinding referenda on statehood. The New York Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has championed a proposal to create a “status assembly,” a convention of delegates who would craft concrete proposals on statehood, independence and a looser “free association” relationship with the U.S. Those proposals would then be negotiated with Congress and voted on by the Puerto Rican electorate.

In 2020, however, statehood was the only option on the ballot, and Puerto Ricans voted “yes.”

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All eyes on Georgia

Any hope of congressional followup on this referendum hinges almost entirely on Georgia’s Senate runoff on Jan. 5, 2021.

If the Democrats win both Georgia Senate seats to gain a Senate majority, Sen. Chuck Schumer has vowed to pursue Puerto Rican statehood. If the Republicans retain the majority, however, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republican senators would almost certainly block any effort to make Puerto Rico a state.

Puerto Rican voters on the mainland usually vote Democratic, so most Republicans perceive statehood as a political threat, although Pew Research finds Puerto Ricans on the island are a socially conservative crowd. Only a few Republican officials, such as Florida’s Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, say they would support Puerto Rican statehood.

For now, all eyes are on Georgia.

D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Territories

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Nearly five million people — residents of Washington D. C., Puerto Rico, and the other U.S. territories — are taxpaying U.S. citizens that have fundamentally different voting rights and representation in government than residents of the 50 states.

What are the U.S. territories?

Similar to states, territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the U.S. government. The United States has held territories throughout its history. In fact, many current states started off as territories before they were granted statehood. Hawaii and Alaska were the last two territories to become states — both in 1959. Currently, the United States occupies sixteen territories, five of which — Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — have permanent inhabitants who are U.S. citizens..

How are the citizens of the territories represented in government?

All five inhabited territories have government structures similar to those of the states, with their own executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Those who live in the territories are U.S. citizens, pay some federal taxes, and can travel freely within the United States. Despite contributing billions in taxes to the federal government, they do not have meaningful representation like U.S. citizens in the 50 states.

At the U.S. federal level, each territory elects a non-voting member in the House of Representatives, but they do not have any representation in the Senate. While citizens in these territories do vote in presidential primaries, they do not have representation in the Electoral College, rendering their vote more symbolic than consequential.

This unequal status provided to the people of the U.S. territories — often characterized as taxation without representation — has been criticized by many as a colonial relationship in a postcolonial world.

How are citizens of Washington, D.C. represented in government?

While Washington, D.C. has more autonomy than the U.S. territories, its citizens still do not have the representation enjoyed by those who live in one of the 50 states.

The District is home to more than 712,000 people. Its citizens pay federal income tax and have at least some representation in the Electoral College thanks to the 23rd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which granted D.C. the same number of electoral votes as the least populous state; however, the population of D.C. is greater than two states — Vermont and Wyoming. Like each of the territories, Washington D.C has a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives and does not have Senators.

Do the residents of D.C. and the territories want statehood?

Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico often lead the calls for statehood conversation because they have larger populations than the smaller territories. Ongoing debates about statehood date back to Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico’s respective beginnings with the U.S. Proponents cite the Revolutionary War slogan “taxation without representation” as a rallying cry as people of the District of Columbia. and the U. S. territories are American citizens who are taxed without representation in Congress.

While citizens of all territories pay many federal taxes, D.C. is the only territory where people pay federal income taxes. In fact, residents of Washington D.C. pay the highest per-capita federal income tax rate in the nation, yet have no voice in how their tax dollars are allocated. Many Puerto Rican leaders and citizens have expressed a desire to start paying federal income taxes in exchange for statehood.

There is a growing consensus among territorial residents that statehood would be a positive and necessary change, In 2016, D.C. voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure in favor of statehood. In Puerto Rico, a nonbinding referendum in November of 2020 resulted in 52 percent of Puerto Ricans voting in favor of statehood.

What is the process to become a state?

The Admissions Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to admit new states to the Union. Every state not included in the original 13 colonies was added by Congress using this power. A bill granting statehood to a prospective state would have to pass in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and be signed into law by the President in order for that territory to be granted statehood.

Has this been done before?

A majority of the current states started out as territories. Just over 60 years ago, Hawaii and Alaska were granted statehood in 1959. Our institutions were updated to accommodate two new states, and, now, the federal government still has the power to grant equal representation to U.S. citizens living in D.C. and the territories.

What would statehood mean for electoral representation in D.C. and the territories?

If D.C. or any of the U.S. territories were to be granted statehood, our institutions would have to be updated to provide representation to these citizens.

In Congress, the Senate would expand to accommodate two Senators from each of the new states. A 1929 law set the number of seats in the House of Representatives to 435 voting members, with representation divided amongst the states based on population. Since this law is still in place, Congress would have to either 1) implement a new law increasing the number of voting members of the House of Representatives or 2) reassign the existing number of districts to accommodate new states.

The Electoral College would also change. States are alloted electoral votes based on how many voting members from their state are in Congress. Therefore, new states would be alloted Electoral College votes based on the number of Representatives plus the two Senators from their state. This would — for the first time — give territorial citizens a meaningful voice in Congress and in presidential elections.

Why are we talking about D.C. statehood now?

While Members of Congress have introduced D.C. statehood bills for decades, recent events have thrust the statehood debate to the forefront. On January 6, 2021, President Trump incited a riot at the U.S. Capitol and initially refused to activate the D.C. National Guard to secure the Capitol.

While state Governors have the power to mobilize their National Guard units within their state, the D.C. Mayor — D.C.’s equivalent of a Governor — cannot mobilize the National Guard in the District without federal government approval. The handling of the Capitol riots has led to renewed calls for D.C. statehood.

Now, just months after a summer in which D.C. leaders criticized the heavy presence of federal law enforcement in the District in the face of largely-peaceful Black Lives Matter protests, there is a clear focus on the arguments that the District should have control over its own public safety and that residents deserve a say in what happens in their community.

Why are we talking about statehood for Puerto Rico now?

Like D.C., recent disasters and controversies have centered the statehood conversation on the need for autonomy for Puerto Rico.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, and the federal government response was slow and grossly inefficient. More than three years later, many U.S. citizens remain without electricity despite paying billions in taxes to the U.S. government. This federal government failure initiated serious conversations about granting statehood or independence to Puerto Rico for safety purposes both on and off the island.

The basic argument for statehood

A core principle of American democracy is the right to representation by the people and for the people. For more than 240 years, Americans have fought to expand the definition of “the people” — securing citizenship and voting rights for women, Black and Indigenous Americans, people of Asian and Latinx descent. Residents of DC, Puerto Rico, and other territories should be next. As the debate over statehood continues and intensifies, it’s important that we center the voices of those impacted by their second-class citizen status: the residents of D. C., Puerto Rico, and the other U.S. territories.

Published November 24, 2021

Puerto Rico may become part of the USA

https://ru.sputnik.kz/20180629/usa-novy-shtat-6209703.html

Historical moment: another state may appear in the USA

Historical moment: in The US may have another state

Puerto Ricans have repeatedly voted for the island nation to join the US as the 51st state. 06/29/2018, Sputnik Kazakhstan

2018-06-29T02:15+0600

2018-06-29T02:15+0600

2022-02-01T14:05+0600

True

Sputnik Kazakhstan

[email protected]

+749564566601

MIA „Rosiya Segodnya“

Sputnik Kazakhstan

, Poero, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, USA, US -rico

ASTANA, June 29 — Sputnik. The fifty-first state may appear in the United States of America. This is claimed by Puerto Rico, a territory dependent on the United States.

The bill was introduced in Parliament by Puerto Rico’s Representative in the lower house of Congress, Jennifer Gonzalez-Colon, and by Congressmen from the Republican and Democratic parties. nine0003

González-Colon called this event “historic” and stated that she was glad to be involved in the “decolonization of Puerto Rico”.

Today is a historic day. I am proud to be the spokesperson and, from the Congress, the one to start us on the road to the decolonization of Puerto Rico. #ElMomentoEsAhora pic.twitter.com/7uTHGhBGSu

— Jenniffer González (@RepJenniffer) June 28, 2018

​

Loud US Exit: How the World Reacted to Washington’s UN HRC Decision

The island nation in the heart of the Caribbean has been an unincorporated territory of the United States for more than a hundred years. It has its own constitution, and the connection with the United States is expressed in the presence of a common citizenship, currency and defense.

About six years ago, Puerto Ricans called for a change in the political system. More than half of the population wanted the state to become the 51st state of the United States. A similar vote took place last year. Then almost 9 voted for the decision to join the United States as a state7% of the population.

Currently, the United States consists of 50 states, which are considered equal subjects of the federation.

USA – Attractions on the map

United States of America, often used United States, or simply America (eng. United States of America, USA, U.S., America) is a state in North America. The area is 9.5 million km² (4th place in the world). Population – 325 million people (2015, estimate; 3rd place in the world). The United States has a federal form of device, administratively divided into 50 states and the Federal District of Columbia; they also have a number of island territories under their control. The capital is the city of Washington. Residents of the United States are called Americans, and the general name America is applied to the United States itself. The United States borders Canada in the north, Mexico in the south, and also has a maritime border with Russia. It is washed by the Pacific Ocean from the west, the Atlantic Ocean from the east and the Arctic Ocean from the north. nine0003

The United States of America was formed in 1776 by the amalgamation of thirteen British colonies that declared their independence. The War of Independence continued until 1783 and ended in victory for the colonists. In 1787, the US Constitution was adopted, and in 1791, the Bill of Rights, which significantly limited the powers of the government in relation to citizens. In the 1860s, tensions between the slave-owning southern states and the industrial northern states led to the start of a four-year Civil War. The consequence of the victory of the northern states was the universal prohibition of slavery, as well as the restoration of the country after the split that arose when the southern states united into the Confederation and declared their independence. nine0003

Until the First World War, US foreign policy activity was limited to interests in the territories of North, Central and South America – in accordance with the Monroe Doctrine formulated back in 1823. After the First World War, the United States Congress did not give consent to the country’s entry into international organizations (for example, the League of Nations and the Chamber of International Justice under it), which limited the role of the United States in world politics. However, the country’s participation in the anti-Hitler coalition significantly increased the influence of the United States on the world stage, and from the second half of the 20th century the country became the core of the capitalist camp. At 19In 1945, the United States became the first nuclear power, and since 1946 they were in a state of global confrontation with the Soviet Union, which lasted until the early 1990s, when the USSR ceased to exist.

As of 2014, the US economy was the world’s first economy in terms of nominal GDP ($17.3 trillion in 2014) and second in terms of GDP (PPP) (after China). The US has a powerful military, including the world’s largest navy; have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council; are a founding state of the North Atlantic Alliance (the military-political bloc of NATO). The country also has the second (after Russia) nuclear potential on the planet (in terms of the total number of deployed warheads). nine0003

With the greatest economic, political, cultural and military influence in the world, the US is currently considered the only superpower on the planet.

The United States does not have an official national language. Most people in the country speak American English.

Geography

Location

The main US territory (called the continental states) is located on the North American continent and stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. The United States borders Mexico to the south and Canada to the north. In addition, the United States includes 2 more states. In the extreme northwest of the American continent is the state of Alaska, which also borders Canada. The state of Hawaii is located in the Pacific Ocean. The border with Russia runs through the Bering Strait. The USA also owns a number of islands in the Caribbean Sea (for example, Puerto Rico) and in the Pacific Ocean (American Samoa, Midway, Guam, etc. ). nine0003

Subordinate territories

A number of island territories with different status are under one or another administration of the United States (but are not included in them). On the territory of the uninhabited atoll of Palmyra, the US Constitution is fully in force. The rest of the territories have their own basic legislation. The largest of these territories is Puerto Rico.

Relief

In the main territory of the country to the west of the Atlantic Lowland stretch the Appalachian Mountains, behind which are the Central Plains (200-500 m above sea level), the plateau of the Great Plains (600-1500 m). Almost the entire west is occupied by the Cordillera mountain system. nine0003

Nature and natural resources

Subsoil is rich in various natural resources, including hard and brown coal, iron and manganese ore. The Cordilleras, the Colorado Plateau, the Great Plains and the Mexican Lowland have deposits of copper, zinc, lead, silver, chromite, vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum, titanium, polymetallic, uranium and mercury ores, as well as gold, sulfur, phosphates and other chemical raw materials.

Deep canyon rivers belong to the basins of water sources flowing into the Pacific Ocean. The Mississippi (with a tributary of the Missouri) – one of the longest river systems on the planet – stretches for 6420 km. On the border with Canada are the Great Lakes – Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, Ontario. nine0003

Vegetation

The slopes of the Cordilleras are covered with dense coniferous forests, the Appalachians – with broad-leaved forests; there are almost no prairies left. In the north of Alaska, tundra vegetation is common.

The abundance of moisture favors the development of the most diverse vegetation in the Atlantic regions and the Appalachians; and especially forest vegetation. Trees are not found only on bare rocks or in low-lying marshy places; tall reeds and mosses grow in the latter. The Appalachian flora is distinguished by a wide variety of species, including tree species: American species of chestnut and plane tree, hickory, magnolia, and tulip tree are found here. nine0003

The forested area of ​​New England is similar in its tree species to the coastal provinces of Canada. In the north, it is surrounded by a region of pines with an important representative of it, the Weymouth pine. The region of deciduous trees extends approximately to the valley of the Allegheny River, which serves as the limit of two vegetative regions, Pennsylvania and pre-Mississippian, but in general the distinction is not sharp, and the same tree species are found here in both the northern and southern Atlantic regions, despite climate difference. nine0003

Coastal sands and swamps of the southern Atlantic states are covered with pine forests. Here, next to the pines, huge cypress trees with straight trunks, thickened at the base like an onion and resting on strong processes of the aerial part of their rhizome, also rise, while its dagger-shaped respiratory appendages stick out from the underground part of the trunk (from which beehives were made). Cypress branches are hung with a gray “Spanish beard”. The forests of the eastern part are rich in undergrowth, creepers and other climbing plants; in the forests of South Carolina and Georgia there are patching, orange trees, catalpa, wild rosemary; Florida vegetation is already tropical. nine0003

No country in the temperate zone, except in East Asia, has such a rich and diverse flora as the United States. In the central basin, from the Appalachian Mountains to the prairies of Illinois, formerly endless forests, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich was equal to the space of France, Spain and Italy combined, and now greatly thinned out by man, consist almost exclusively of deciduous species – oak, ash, elm, hickory and others. In the north, they are limited by the belt of white pine, in the southern Appalachian part, by the area of ​​balsam fir, and further south, near the Gulf of Mexico, by the area of ​​pine and marsh cypress. nine0003

To the west, the forests break off already in such pre-Mississippian states as Illinois (nicknamed the “steppe state”), and boundless expanses of meadow steppes (prairies) begin. The predominance of herbaceous vegetation (with the color of meadows red in spring, blue in summer, and yellow in autumn), according to some, depends on climatic conditions, according to others, on the powdery nature of the soil. However, there are also places where the former prairies are overgrown with forests – for example, in the Kentucky Green River basin and on the Missouri plain near St. Louis. Flora of the prairies (now cut into fields, with driveable roads) – with denser and taller vegetation. To the west of the Mississippi are the territories of the Great Plains with more sparse vegetation (due to dryness) than in the prairies of the pre-Mississippi. Still further, rising to the Rocky Mountains, there are already desert steppes, in which Chernobyl predominates, especially in the salt marshes beyond the Arkansas River. Cactus thickets also begin here, thanks to which the Llano Estacado area resembles the slopes of the Mexican Sierra Madre. nine0003

Further west, but only exclusively in the mountains, forest areas begin again (but these are no longer dense forests of the eastern part): the trees here are not so branched, there is no undergrowth, lianas are rare; and the forests are more like parks than the virgin forests of Kentucky and Virginia. In the Mississippi Valley, due to extreme temperatures and hot summers with heavy summer rains, almost tropical plants breed in places where the average temperature is much lower than in other countries under the same latitudes – for example, sugarcane, cotton, corn, yielding abundant crops. . nine0003

The flora of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Slope is very different: from the Upper Missouri to the highlands of Texas and from the lowlands of the Colorado Plain to the Sierra Nevada, cacti and mugwort grow on calcareous and saline areas, reaching great heights on the high uplands. In the southern parts of the same region, thorny bushes reach a considerable height. Rising higher along the Rocky Mountains, there is a belt of juniper, then – pines. On the Pacific slope, due to the influence of moist westerly winds, mighty coniferous vegetation with its giant representatives developed; it covers the high valleys and escarpments of the Sierra Nevada, runs north into British Columbia and Alaska, branching east into Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Pseudo-hemzies predominates here, reaching up to 80 and even up to 100 m in height. In the Coastal Ranges, a sequoia of even greater height grows: it forms huge forests near the Russian River. nine0003

Geology

History

Historical dates

• 1565 – the Spaniards founded the first European settlement on the territory of modern USA – the city of St. Augustine.
• 1585 – Founding of the Roanoke Colony – first failed attempt at British colonization of the Americas.
• 1607 – The first permanent British colony in North America, Jamestown, Virginia, is founded.
• 1609 – The Spanish found Santa Fe – the beginning of a major expansion of Spanish colonization in the Southwest of the modern United States. nine0172
• 1620 – founded the first in New England – the historical center of the United States – a colony, Plymouth.
• 1623 New Hampshire colony founded.
• 1626 – The Dutch found New Amsterdam, the capital of the Dutch possessions in North America, which later became New York.
• 1630 – British Puritans found the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose capital – Boston – became the largest city of the British colonies in North America.
• 1634 – Foundation of the colony of Maryland by English Catholic settlers. nine0172
• 1636 – Baptists expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony found Rhode Island Colony.
• 1638 – The Swedes establish their colony in the territory of the modern state of Delaware. In less than 20 years, the colony comes under the control of the Netherlands.
• 1638 – Founding of the Connecticut Colony by immigrants from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1670 – the foundation of the British colony of Carolina, which was divided in 1729 into two colonies: South Carolina and North Carolina. nine0172
• 1682 – Declaration of the Mississippi basin as the possession of the French king.
• 1682 – Quaker William Penn founds the colony of Pennsylvania, whose first capital – Philadelphia – became the capital of the united colonies during the Revolutionary War and the first capital of the United States.
• 1701 – the foundation of Fort Detroit – the largest point of French colonial expansion in the Great Lakes region.
• 1718 – The French found New Orleans, which became the center of the promotion of French colonization in the territory of the modern United States. nine0172
• 1724 Georgia, the southernmost British colony in North America, is founded.
• 1763 – The French found St. Louis – the most important stronghold in the middle reaches of the Mississippi.
• 1769 – The Spaniards found San Diego, this becomes the beginning of the Spanish colonization of Upper California.
• December 16, 1773 – Boston Tea Party – beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
• 1774 – The First Continental Congress – the beginning of an open confrontation between the North American colonies and the mother country. nine0172
• 1775-1783 Revolutionary War, also called the American Revolution.
• 1784 – Foundation of the first Russian settlement in the Bay of Three Saints on Kodiak Island.
• 1787 September 17 – Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia adopts the US Constitution.
• 1789 September 25 – Adoption of the Bill of Rights – the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens.
• 1789 – First presidential election in the United States. George Washington becomes the first President of the United States with 100% of the electoral votes. nine0172
• 1799 – Foundation of the Russian-American Company – the beginning of the comprehensive development of Alaska by Russia.
• 1800 – Transfer of the US capital from Philadelphia to Washington.
• 1803 – Louisiana Purchase – the acquisition of French possessions in North America from Napoleonic France, as a result of which the country’s territory doubled.
• 1804 – Foundation of Novoarkhangelsk – the future capital of Russian America.
• 1812 – Foundation of Fort Ross – the southernmost point of Russian expansion in America. nine0172
• 1812-1815 – Anglo-American war.
• 1816-1817 – the Russian fortress was created in the Hawaiian Islands.
• 1818 – Agreement with Great Britain on the definition of the border between the United States and British possessions in the Mississippi basin, as a result of which part of the territory of Minnesota and North Dakota was ceded to the United States.
• 1819 Feb 21 – Adams-Onis agreement to purchase Florida for US$5 million ratified.
• 1820 – Missouri Compromise, allowing the balance between North and South to be maintained for another three decades. nine0172
• 1823 – First presentation of the Monroe Doctrine as the fundamental concept of US foreign policy.
• 1828 – Founding of the US Democratic Party.
• May 28, 1830 – The United States Congress passes a bill deporting East Coast Indians west to future Oklahoma.
• 1841 Sale of Fort Ross to US citizen John Sutter.
• December 29, 1845 – Accession of the Republic of Texas to the United States as a state.
• 1846 – Accession by agreement with Great Britain of the Territory of Oregon – the northwest of the modern United States. nine0172
• 1846-1848 – Mexican-American War.
• 1846-1848 – Migration of Mormons from Illinois to Utah – one of the most massive and organized immigration movements in the western United States.
• 1848-1855 – Gold rush in California, which contributed to the rapid settlement of English-speaking settlers in the American West.
• 1850 – Act to capture fugitive slaves throughout the United States as a compromise with the South on the issue of admission to the Union of California as a free state. nine0172
• 1853 – Purchase of Gadsden – acquisition by the United States of part of the territories of the modern states of Arizona and New Mexico. The final establishment of the southwestern state border.
• 1854 – Founding of the Republican Party of the United States.
• 1854, May 30 – The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by the US Congress, upsetting the balance between the northern farming and southern slave states.
• 1854-1856 – Civil War in Kansas, which became a rehearsal for the Civil War. nine0172
• 1857-1858 War between Mormons and federal government in Utah.
• 1859 – John Brown rebellion in Virginia against slavery.
• 1860-1861 Secession of slave states from the Union.
• 1861-1865 – Civil War.
• 1867 – purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire.
• 1898 – Spanish-American War, as a result of which the United States received the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and some other territories. Cuba became dependent on the United States until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 year.
• December 23, 1913 – Creation of the Federal Reserve System (FRS).
• 1917
  • April 6 — As a result of the so-called “Zimmermann Telegram”, the United States enters the First World War on the side of the Entente.
  • The Espionage Act imposed a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for “spreading false information about the U.S. armed forces in order to interfere with their operations, cause a riot, or interfere with military recruitment.”
• 1929 – The beginning of the Great Depression in the United States – one of the most serious shocks in American history, which had a huge impact not only on the economy, but also on the culture of the country. nine0172
• 1940 Smith Act passed.
• December 7, 1941 – Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, United States enters World War II, declaring war on Japan on December 8.
• 1945
  • August 6 and 9 – atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan). About 250 thousand people die, mostly civilians.
  • August 10 — Japan expresses readiness to surrender to the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
  • August 15 – Emperor Hirohito announces his surrender over the radio. Victory Day over Japan (V-J Day). nine0172
• 1950-1953 – war in Korea.
• 1960
  • August-October – the nationalization of the property of American companies in Cuba.
• 1961
  • January 20 – John F. Kennedy takes office as President of the United States.
  • May 5 – Alan Shepard’s suborbital spaceflight on Freedom 7.
• 1962
  • February 3 – John F. Kennedy imposes a complete embargo on trade with Cuba.
  • Caribbean Crisis. nine0172
• 1963
  • May – mass protests of the Negro population of Birmingham (Alabama) against racial discrimination.
  • November 22 – Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
• 1964-1973 – Vietnam War.
• July 21, 1969 – Astronaut Neil Armstrong first landed on the Moon.
• 1973, March – 1974, August 9 – Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon leaves the White House in disgrace.
• 1986, January 28 – the death of the shuttle Challenger. nine0172
• 1987
  • June 12 – Ronald Reagan, speaking near the Berlin Wall, called on Mikhail Gorbachev to destroy it.
  • October 19 – “Black Monday” (Dow Jones fell by 22. 68%).
• 1991 – Gulf War, liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.
• 1992, April 30 – May 2 – African American riot in Los Angeles.
• 1992-1994 – peacekeeping operation in Somalia.
• 1999 – military operation against Yugoslavia. nine0172
• 2001 – 9/11 terrorist attack.
• 2001 – the beginning of the military operation in Afghanistan, which continues to this day.
• 2003, February 1 – the death of the shuttle “Columbia”.
• 2003-2011 – Iraqi war.
• September 2005 – Hurricane Katrina caused levees to burst, flooding the city of New Orleans, and subsequent riots and looting.
• 2007 – US mortgage crisis.
• 2008, September – the beginning of the global financial crisis in the United States. nine0172
• 2011, March – October – military operation against Libya.
• 2014, September – present – US involvement in the civil war in Syria.

Political system

The US constitution, adopted in 1787, vests certain powers in the exercise of state power in the US federal government. State powers not specified for transfer to the federal government by the constitution are exercised by the states of the United States.

The United States Constitution establishes the principle of separation of powers, according to which the federal government consists of legislative, executive and judicial bodies that act independently of each other.

• The highest legislative body is the bicameral US Congress:
  • lower house – House of Representatives;
  • the upper house is the Senate.
• The highest executive authority is the President of the United States. The president is the head of state, commander in chief of the armed forces (see List of US Presidents). There is also the post of Vice President. nine0172
• The supreme body of the judiciary is the US Supreme Court.

The main political parties are Republican and Democratic. There are also many other, smaller parties.

Foreign policy

US foreign policy is aimed at achieving two main goals – to ensure the security of the state and its citizens and to ensure the welfare of the country’s citizens.