States that were almost one.
The map of the United States could easily have had fewer states. Maine was once part of Massachusetts, Texas once claimed half of New Mexico, and Rhode Island came close to being carved up by its neighbours.
The short version, from my channel. Watch it on YouTube.
Correction: the video says Texas nearly merged with New Mexico after the Civil War and Rhode Island nearly merged with Connecticut in the 1800s. I could not find good sources for either. The better-documented stories are below.
Maine: forty years as part of Massachusetts
From colonial times, Maine was not a state of its own but the District of Maine, governed from Boston even though New Hampshire sat in between. Distance, taxes and the War of 1812, when Massachusetts did little to defend Maine's coast, built up support for a split.
Maine finally became a state on 15 March 1820. It happened as part of the Missouri Compromise: Maine joined as a free state and Missouri as a slave state, keeping the balance in the Senate.
Texas and New Mexico: a claim to Santa Fe
After it broke away from Mexico, Texas claimed everything east of the Rio Grande, all the way up to present-day Colorado and Wyoming. That included Santa Fe, which had been the capital of New Mexico for more than two centuries.
Texas was also deeply in debt. In the Compromise of 1850, it gave up its claims to the western land in exchange for $10 million from the federal government. New Mexico became its own territory, and Texas got the shape it has today.
Rhode Island: the state that said no
Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and then refused to ratify the new Constitution. For more than a year it sat outside the new United States. Congress threatened to treat its trade like a foreign country's, and neighbouring Massachusetts and Connecticut were said to be considering which parts of it they could take.
On 29 May 1790 Rhode Island finally ratified, by 34 votes to 32. The last of the thirteen original states, it is still the smallest.
- 29 May 1790 Rhode Island ratifies, 34 to 32
- 15 March 1820 Maine separates from Massachusetts
- 1850 Texas gives up its New Mexico claims for $10 million
Sources
- District of Maine, Wikipedia
- Missouri Compromise, Wikipedia
- Compromise of 1850, Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association
- The Republic of Rhode Island, Patrick T. Conley, Small State Big History
- History of Rhode Island, Wikipedia