It was in the original instructions, but it appears they were slightly edited when Jetpunk decided to feature my quiz. I have added permanent for clarity
The District of Columbia is a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress. It is its own unique legal status. This is different from a U.S. Territory which is overseen by the federal government as a whole, typically the executive branch, and has a greater degree of self-governance.
I did not include past territories, I'm considering it for a separate quiz.
It seems the independance movement over here in Puerto Rico is rising a bit due to the Fiscal Control Board. Though IMO, I really would like statehood. For the rest, IDK. Also, these aren't countries, there territories
Gamer1162, I agree with you. My personal opinion (as a non-Puerto Rican American) is that Puerto Rico deserves to be a state. From what I can tell the prospect is pretty popular among Puerto Ricans, although I haven't been to Puerto Rico myself so can't say for sure.
jmellor13, New York has 27 US representatives and Pennsylvania has 18 while Alaska and Wyoming, for example, have 1. I don't think they can get any fewer.
And each of those two states has two senators, despite the fact that New York's population is 33 times greater than Wyoming's (which also means that, by population proportion, New York should have 33 times more representatives than Wyoming, not just 27 times as many). Wyoming gets 3 electoral votes. Proportionally, New York should have 99. It has 29. That means there is one electoral vote for every 670,000 New Yorkers. That's more than the entire population of Wyoming, which gets 3 votes for its 580,000 residents. So a Wyoming resident's vote for president counts more than three times as much as a New Yorker's vote. Less-populated states have disproportionate power in both the stronger chamber of Congress and in the election of the president. I understand the founders' logic, but there is no denying that big states like New York, California, and Texas have less power than their populations dictate they should.
Not sure what "havoc" you're referring to. Plenty of countries have the capital as its own separate district rather than being part of a state or province (China, for example). Personally I think the situation in Canada is more confusing, where Ottawa is located in Ontario but is not the capital of Ontario.
As for why the capitol moved to D.C., see this wiki article (or, better yet, just listen to "The Room Where it Happens" from the musical Hamilton).
As Cornflakesfu mentioned, the reason the capital is in between Virginia and Maryland is described in Hamilton, but a quick summary is basically Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wanted more power for the southern states, specifically Virginia. They got to have the capital in Virginia in return for Hamilton being given control of a system he could "shape however he wanted". Hamilton only agreed to this because the Treasurer(him) would still have the banks in the same spot. "He got more than he gave."
Additionally, the shape that DC is right now was not the original shape. Originally DC was a rhombus with portions taken from Maryland and from Virginia. The portion taken from Virginia was Alexandria County, District of Columbia and the portion from Maryland was Washington County, District of Columbia. Alexandria County contained the City of Alexandria while Washington County contained the City of Georgetown and the City of Washington. Alexandria County was returned to Virginia in 1846 and the City of Georgetown, the City of Washington, and Washington County were merged into Washington, DC in 1871.
It's not, they're actually two separate places. American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States, which should not be confused with the Independent State of Samoa, which is located nearby, but is in fact a distinct and different place.
https://2020census.gov/en/conducting-the-count/island-areas/northern-mariana.html says "According to 2010 Census data, the total population of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands was 53,883."
If anyone's interested, check out these U.S. territory quizzes. U.S. Virgin Islands: https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/1291421/us-virgin-islands-trivia
I did not include past territories, I'm considering it for a separate quiz.
the havoc of "District of Columbia" (Columbia WHAT?) - just
seems to unnecessarily complicate things. By the same token,
what was wrong with keeping either New York or Philadelphia as the capitol???????????????????
As for why the capitol moved to D.C., see this wiki article (or, better yet, just listen to "The Room Where it Happens" from the musical Hamilton).
Northern Mariana Islands: https://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/1291421/northern-mariana-islands-trivia