51st State

Who should be the US of A's next state? Throughout history, there have been numerous suggestions. Some of them are so old, they were calling for the 49th state (or 14th state, depending!).

The big ones these days are New Columbia (Washington, D.C.), Puerto Rico, and Pacifica (a combination of Guam, Northern Marianas, and the currently independent countries of Palau, Micronesia, and Marshall Islands). Pacifica would have a population between Alaska and Wyoming and an area almost as big as Rhode Island. In other words, it would be small.

Other foreign countries with citizens calling for admission to the United States are the Phillipines, Guyana, Taiwan, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Sicily (in 1944).

A hundred years ago, the Phillipines were a territory of the US (thanks to the Spanish-American War). That was back when the US was much more expansionist than it is today (in terms of direct governance). In 1935, the islands gained commonwealth status, followed by independence in 1946. Some people in the Phillipines would like their country to rejoin the US, as three separate states, based upon the major island groupings.

350,000 Guyanese currently reside in the United States. 751,000 still live in Guyana. They're joining the US whether you like it or not!

From Wikipedia: "A recent poll conducted in Taiwan showed that 15% of the people, when asked about where the future of Taiwan lay, believed that it should try to become the 51st state of the United States of America."

Some potential internal 51st states:

Denizens of New York City and Upstate New York have both discussed separating from the other, as have Chicago and southern Illinois.

Southern Oregon and far northern California have been calling themselves the State of Jefferson for a long time now, even going to far as to set up highway checkpoints back in 1941.

Eastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle have been proposed as a State of Lincoln, or Columbia, or Columbiana, or just Eastern Washington.

Way back in the 1700s, Knoxville and the surrounding counties in Tennessee and North Carolina declared themselves the State of Franklin, but Congress didn't act on it. Tennessee's constitution, though, does reflect the sentiment by establishing three Grand Divisions with specific legal ramifications. The eastern Grand Division roughly matches Franklin.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula has often called for separation, sometimes including adjacent counties from Wisconsin. I've heard this proposed state called Superior or Wilderness.

Some denizens of Cincinnati's Kentucky suburb counties as well as Louisville have suggested a State of Northern Kentucky.

And of course, there's California.

If we take all these proposals, we'll have many more than 51 states. We'd have 84. Wouldn't that be fun? We might as well annex Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and the whole rest of the world, while we're at it. . .