the.com/statehood
The political upgrade from 'territory we govern' to 'territory that votes on us back.'
means The formal legal status of being a constituent state within a larger union or nation, complete with its own government but bound to the whole.
from Built from 'state' — from Latin 'status' meaning condition or standing — plus the suffix '-hood,' which marks a state of being or condition (as in 'childhood' or 'brotherhood'). The word is a 19th-century American coinage, born from the very practical need to talk about territories graduating into full partnership with the republic, status and all.
- US threshold
- Congress can admit with simple majority vote
- newest members
- Alaska and Hawaii joined in 1959
- DC paradox
- more residents than Wyoming, zero voting senators
- UN version
- requires recognition, not just self-declaration