Territories of the United States and Related Topics

Palmyra Atoll

One of the Northern Line Islands .

Palmyra Atoll – NOAA Nautical Chart (1:47,500)

Orthographic projection over Palmyra Atoll

Welcome sign for Palmyra Atoll, June 2005

Palmyra Atoll viewed from the northwest, 2011

Green sea turtle at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Coral reef at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Tallest Pisonia grandis tree at Palmyra, with Henry E. Cooper in 1913

alt=A satellite image|Palmyra Atoll, 2010 satellite image

alt=Coconut trees overlooking a small inlet|Coconut palms on Strawn Island at Palmyra Atoll

It is administered as an incorporated unorganized territory, presently the only one of its kind, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Northwest Territory of the United States, 1787

In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes a territory of the United States and specifies how it is to be governed, or an agency to manage certain federal lands.

John A. Burns of Hawaii, the last of a series of delegates to continuously serve in Congress

Non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives

Non-voting members of the United States House of Representatives (called either delegates or resident commissioner, in the case of Puerto Rico) are representatives of their territory in the House of Representatives, who do not have a right to vote on proposed legislation in the full House but nevertheless have floor privileges and are able to participate in certain other House functions.

Federico Degetau y González of Puerto Rico, The first resident commissioner in the United States Congress

Amata C. Radewagen is American Samoa's first female delegate

Walter E. Fauntroy, delegate from the District of Columbia from 1971 to 1991

Choctaw Nation Delegate to Washington Peter Pitchlynn who served as ambassador from 1845 to 1861 and again from 1866 to 1881

Cherokee Nation Delegate to Congress Kimberly Teehee

There are currently six non-voting members: a delegate representing the District of Columbia, a resident commissioner representing Puerto Rico, as well as one delegate for each of the other four permanently inhabited U.S. territories: American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Contiguous United States

The contiguous United States or officially the conterminous United States, also known as the Lower 48, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia on the continent of North America.

Map showing Alaska's actual physical relationship with the Lower 48

These differ from the related term continental United States, which includes Alaska (also on the North American continent but separated from the 48 states by British Columbia and Yukon of Canada) but excludes the Hawaiian Islands and all U.S. territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Page one of the officially engrossed copy of the Constitution signed by delegates. A print run of 500 copies of the final version preceded this copy.

Article Four of the United States Constitution

Article Four of the United States Constitution outlines the relationship between the various states, as well as the relationship between each state and the United States federal government.

It also empowers Congress to admit new states and administer the territories and other federal lands.

Territory of Hawaii

Organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding Palmyra Island, was admitted to the United States as the 50th U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.

Cartoon depicting the United States, its territories, and U.S. controlled regions as a classroom with belligerent Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Cuba

Matson Navigation Company advertised Hawaii as a tourist destination for the first time in the late 1890s.

All islands voted at least 93 percent in favor of Admission acts. Ballot (inset) and referendum results for the Admission Act of 1959.

On July 4, 1898, the United States Congress passed the Newlands Resolution authorizing the U.S. annexation of the Republic of Hawaii, and five weeks later, on August 12, Hawaii became a U.S. territory.

Federal government of the United States

The 435 seats of the House grouped by state

The United States Capitol is the seat of government for Congress.

Seal of the president of the United States

Uncle Sam, a common personification of the United States Federal Government

Seal of the vice president of the United States

Diagram of the Federal Government and American Union, 1862

The states of the United States as divided into counties (or, in Louisiana and Alaska, parishes and boroughs, respectively). Alaska and Hawaii are not to scale and the Aleutian and uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have been omitted.

The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a federal district (the city of Washington in the District of Columbia, where the entire federal government is based), five major self-governing territories and several island possessions.

American Samoa

German, British and American warships in Apia Harbor, Samoa, 1899

Tuimanua Elisala Alalamua, the last official titleholder of Tui Manuʻa (1899–1909)

Rear Admiral Benjamin Franklin Tilley, the first Governor of American Samoa (1900–1901)

Commander John Martin Poyer served as the 12th Governor of American Samoa (1915–1919).

Locations of Pacific Ocean splashdowns of American spacecraft

English author W. Somerset Maugham stayed at Sadie Thompson Inn during his six-week visit to Pago Pago in 1916.

Pago Pago Harbor today and inter-island dock area

Tonga Trench south of the Samoa Islands and north of New Zealand

Lemanu Peleti Mauga, the 58th and incumbent Governor of American Samoa (2021–present)

Cockscomb Point on Pola Island is seen jutting into the ocean.

A view of American Samoa's Ofu Beach on Ofu Island in the Manuʻa Islands

A proportional representation of American Samoa exports, 2019

Mascot "Charlie the Tuna" at the StarKist cannery in Atuʻu

The current territorial license plate design, introduced in 2011

American Samoa at the South Pacific Games

The Samoa flying fox is only found in Fiji and the Samoan Islands.

The Blue-crowned lorikeet is the only parrot found in American Samoa.

American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa, ; also Amelika Sāmoa or Sāmoa Amelika) is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the independent state of Samoa.

Missouri Territory

Organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812, until August 10, 1821.

Map of the Territory of Missouri in 1812

Missouri Territory, formerly Louisiana, 1814 map

The remaining portion of the territory, consisting of the present states of Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, most of Kansas, Wyoming, and Montana, and parts of Colorado, Minnesota and New Mexico, effectively became an unorganized territory after Missouri became a state.