In Germany they have several "City States", such as Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg. What cities in the United States could be made into "City States", as in still part of the country but counted as their own individual state. When would the most likely period for this to happen be?
American City States
- Thread starter IchBinDieKaiser
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The closest that I know of is Carson City, which I guess would be more of a city-county. It's not part of any county of Nevada.
As for when a city could be it's own state; when New Jersey or Rhode Island is completely covered by cityscape? The city of New York could secede from the state of the same name. I'm sure Upstate wouldn't mind not having to deal with them anymore (but they might miss the taxes the city generates).
As for when a city could be it's own state; when New Jersey or Rhode Island is completely covered by cityscape? The city of New York could secede from the state of the same name. I'm sure Upstate wouldn't mind not having to deal with them anymore (but they might miss the taxes the city generates).
Don't Washington D.C. and Providence, Rhode Island already qualify? Providence even has two Senators!
The state of Rhode Island has two senators as well as two representatives. Since most of Rhode Island is the sprawling city of greater Providence this is what I was, tongue-in-cheek, referring to.
So true. There are more antelope in my state of Wyoming than people. We were the first state to give women the vote. We could really up our congressional representation if we could just give the antelope the vote.
It's not based on size. For instance, Blacksburg has a population of slightly over 18,000 more than Fairfax, but the former is a Town while the latter is a City.
I was going to mention Virginia, but got beat to it. Baltimore is the only other city I know of with that status.
I saw a thread a while back about what if states were limited to population of <1 million. Makes no sense to me, but maybe somebody could work with it.
IMO, only chance for this kind of thing is either colonial/Revolutionary, so you'd probably get more discussion in pre-1900.
I think the best chance is if colonial charters are granted to cities, either through a company setting up cities on a trade nexus or for fishing/whaling or if there was more royal involvement in the colonies, granting more specific charters. As interesting as that thought is, though possibly impractical, I will comment further on the first. Problems I have with that are, first, that any good trade spots will probably be claimed already. Maybe if something was set up in a disputed area (like the Maryland/Pennsylvania border) or if a stupid king gave already chartered land away. That might work if the land is very undeveloped or mismanaged. Second, food would be a major issue. It would require either vigorous trade or having enough land to build farms. Another stupid king option is if a company was given an exclusive trade charter with a colony, and establishes a city to trade from. Any of these options has potential for intense weirdnes in the Revolutionary era.
St. Louis is also separate from any county. I'd think that wouold be the most obvious one, though that's proabably because I've spent most of my life on the opposite side of it from my grandparents.
Wikipedia has an article on independent cities: the US has 3 outside of Virginia, and 39 in it.
Wikipedia has an article on independent cities: the US has 3 outside of Virginia, and 39 in it.
