Only logged in members can reply and interact with the post.
Join SimilarWorlds for FREE »

why can puerto rico split from the us but a state cant?

Puerto rico has voted before to split from the us but when 11 states tried to do 500000 americans were killed. I don't get it
nickir · M
Puerto Rico has had several votes on whether to remain what it is now, leave entirely or join the US. The leave entirely group never even got serious consideration. In the last vote they voted to join the USA. Now it's up to Congress to decide how they want to handle it.

Incidentally, you don't realize how INCREDIBLY stupid the South was to secede. There were still people ALIVE at the time who remembered how bad the original Confederation was, how ineffective & ludicrous it became in just a few short years. Lincoln only wanted to buy out the slaves over a period of 35+ years, exactly the way Britain had successfully done a a couple of decades before. So the slave owners lost their slaves for no compensation & the Negroes were free 35 years sooner. Even before the Civil War ended incidents of each state trying to decide how much it would participate were happening -- things like 1 of the textile states making uniforms only for its own men. Had they won, the Confedracy either would have become a totalitarian dictatorship, a collection of totalitarianisms, or rejoined a much stronger USA piecemeal. Manifest Destiny would have become more important to the USA, which would have widened the gap in force between the USA & a putative CSA government, assuming it could keep together.

If you legislate secession into a non-totalitarian government, it is only a matter of time before it is used by the parts. And you've MADE IT LEGAL.
golemn9 · 26-30, M
the U.S. can allow it to split because it is not a state. States have to adopt the constitution which does not accept states to leave?
Mountainlady16 · 22-25, F
@golemn9: actually it doesn't go either way
Goralski · 51-55, M
@golemn9: yes a state can leave they just won't let it
SW-User
I've only heard of them voting to become a state. I can't think of any us possessions/territories that were made independent. not that it couldn't have happened, just I can't recall/think of.
Mountainlady16 · 22-25, F
@hyg346: we did and the Philippines too. We act have 16 territories and counting territories the US is in all 4 hemisphere
Mountainlady16 · 22-25, F
@DeadCowboy: Cuba yeah same with Philippines. Puerto Rico and Guam is different their ppl are citizens
Mountainlady16 · 22-25, F
America Samoa too
SW-User
Puerto Rico is only a territory so I think it is easier for them to leave.
This comment is hidden. Show Comment
Mountainlady16 · 22-25, F
@RippinKlouds: guess that's why they never joined
Goralski · 51-55, M
Its not a state

 
Post Comment