The last real change to the map of the continental US was the admission of New Mexico and Arizona as states in 1912. Alaska and Hawaii’s admissions in 1959 changed the flag a bit, but for my lifetime (I’m 43) and the lifetime of more than 200 million other Americans the map of the USA and the flag have been static. (Sure there have been minor changes to state maps- a couple of cities have gotten big enough to show up on national maps perhaps, and a few new lakes, but I’m talking state lines and borders and the number states.)
Do you think that either the map or the flag will ever change again? If so, which do you think is most likely?
-The admission of Puerto Rico (or of Guam, American Samoa, or the U.S.V.I.) as a state?
-The division of Texas into multiple states?
-The secession of NYC from the state of NY?
-The representation of the territories on the flag?
I’d have to say that the map is unlikely to change in my lifetime (I’m, um, 50 something ;)), but if it does change, I think that the only slim chance would be that Puerto Rico would become a state. But I think that this is VERY unlikely.
I believe that all of the above are content to stay territorial possessions, instead of going through the hassle of becoming full states. IIRC, all of them were asked (and I believe the residents voted) if A) they wanted to stay as territories in the US and B) if they wanted to become full states. I think that all of them said yes to A but no to B.
I can’t see that ever happening.
Again, I don’t see this as even remotely likely.
Nope.
If I were to wildly speculate, then I suppose that if Mexico goes completely tits up, it’s possible (in the same way that it’s possible we’ll develop FTL travel in my lifetime…or ever) that some of it’s border states might request annexation…and that the US would annex them into the union as potential new states. Going even further into the realm of sci-fi, I suppose that, after the collapse of the European Union due to massive and unsustainable social spending, they might request annexation as new states in the union as well…
(ok, I couldn’t really keep a straight face for those last two)
1, yes, PR can pretty much become a State when it wants to. They have it good being a Territory, however, so they don’t want to change now. I’d give this a 33% chance in our lifetime.
No more likely than Rhode Island splitting, and just as legal.
I think the only thing that could change the map now would be massive coastal flooding from global climate change. But if I know this country, we’ll spend quadrillions of dollars building levees around all of Florida rather than move to higher ground.
Puerto Ricans have shifted recently from a previously very stable (though slight) plurality favoring remaining a territory to a significant majority favoring statehood, if a 2008 poll by newspaper El Nuevo Dia is accurate.
Border disputes between the states are not unheard of. There was recently a disagreement between NH and Maine over which state a certain Island is in. There’s no reason two states couldn’t agree to move their border, or that a decision made in the courts couldn’t be overturned.
You forgot one other possibility; statehood for the District of Columbia. Unlikely but not impossible. And it would change the flag and the map of the continental United States.
Bullshit. We’ll trade them all our hockey teams for beer. Lots of beer. And a *Forever Knight *Boxed Set, with a better finale that leaves room for a movie or three.
I’d call that less likely than Mexico, but theoretically possible. The island might kill Hawaii’s tourism business, but maybe they’d be eligible to enter two schools in an expanded SEC. University of Havana, and Castro State.
I remember the last time Quebec had some kind of snit and looked like it might go its own way, IIRC there was speculation in some fairly serious press (Foreign Affairs or something similar) that some of the Atlantic provinces (that’d be cut off from Canada proper) might apply to the US for statehood.
:aside: I loved that show