News on Youtube Aug 2 2018

America!

Land of the free and home of the brave

And also some pretty weird borders

Why do the Gulf Coast States look like this?

Why do Louisiana and Florida steal coastline that looks like it should belong to Mississippi

and Alabama?

Well

Under Spain, Florida's panhandle reached as far west as the Mississippi river.

But, since the US and Spain were having a conflict over the Western borders of Louisiana,

and the US wanted to control both banks of the Mississippi river, in 1810 they invaded

Spanish Florida and annexed the land west of the Pearl River to Louisiana.

Later, during the war of 1812, the US annexed the land west of the Perdido river and made

it part of the Mississippi territory.

Then in 1816, the territory was split vertically roughly in half into Mississippi and Alabama.

Why is the upper peninsula a part of Michigan?

Why not Wisconsin, or it's own state?

Well, in 1835 there was a dispute between Ohio and Michigan over a strip of land on

Lake Erie

The Toledo Strip

Why?

Well, the Northwest Ordinance declared that a state could be created from the Northwest

Territory with all land north of a straight east-west line from the southern point of

Lake Michigan

That state being, Michigan

Now, based on that, the Toledo strip should definitely be part of Michigan

But the maps used at the time showed Lake Michigan as being further north than it actually

is

But then, why didn't Ohio just give up the land after the truth was revealed?

Well, the Toledo Strip was rich agriculturally, multiple canals were going to be built there,

and it included the mouth of the Maumee river

As such, Ohio didn't want to lose Toledo to Michigan

And, since Ohio was a state, while Michigan was not, Ohio had a lot more political representation

As such, Ohio was given the Toledo strip, while as a consolation, Michigan was given

the Upper Peninsula

Why does Oklahoma have that skinny Panhandle?

Why isn't it just part of Texas?

Well, it was a part of Texas

Until in 1845 when Texas tried to join the Union

And it wanted to maintain slavery

But, due to the Missouri compromise, new territories could only permit slavery if they were south

of 36 degrees 30

So Texas gave up claims to territories north of that line, some of which is now the Oklahoma

panhandle

But then why isn't the Oklahoma panhandle just part of Kansas?

Well

The originally proposed southern border of Kansas was 36 degrees 30, which would have

made the Oklahoma panhandle part of Kansas

But Congress instead set the border at the 37th parallel

Why?

Well, look at Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota

They all have 3 degrees of height

See, Congress wanted states to have similar sizes to each other, which can be seen in

the previous example, as well as in Colorado Wyoming and Montana all having 4 degrees of

height, and all of these states being the same width

Okay, but if Congress wanted states to be similar sizes to one another, then how come

Texas and California are so huge?

Well

Almost immediately after California was taken from Mexico, gold was discovered there

And so the population exploded

Because of this, California tried to make itself a state

But it still needed approval from Congress to do so

So why didn't Congress split California into smaller states?

Because of how far away California was from other heavily populated areas of the US

See, California could have just declared independence from the US, and the US would not have been

able to take it back

"She is practically further removed from us than England.

We cannot reach her by railroad, nor by unbroken steam navigation.

We can send no army over the prairie, mountain and the desert."

So, since California could do basically whatever they wanted, they made their state stretch

as far south as the port of San Diego, and far enough west to include all the Sierra

Nevada gold fields

But what about Texas?

Well, Texas was an independent country before becoming a state

And it joined the Union at a time when many Americans supported the idea of Manifest Destiny,

that America should control all of North America

So America didn't want to force Texas to split into smaller states out of fear that that

might make them refuse to be annexed

Why does this strip of land even belong to Idaho?

Wouldn't it make more sense to be part of Washington?

Well, it was part of Washington

But when gold was discovered in the region, settlers came from different parts of the

country

Due to cultural and political differences between these settlers and the people on the

Pacific coast, they split the state roughly at the 117th meridian west

But then, why isn't part of Montana just a part of Idaho?

Well, it used to be

But due to the mountains, there was little to no interaction between the people in these

two regions

So Idaho's border with Montana was set at the peaks of the Bitterroot mountains

Why does Wyoming take what looks like it should be the Northeast corner of Utah?

Well, there are a few reasons

First, this region was cut off from Utah by the Uinta mountains, while it was easily accessible

from Wyoming

Second, this region was full of coal fields, waterways, and many roadways such as the Oregon

Trail passed through it

And many members of Congress were worried that Mormons would have too much influence

if this region were in Utah