ORGANIZED INCORPORATED TERRITORIES OF THE UNITED STATES

'Organized incorporated territories' are those territories of the United States that are both incorporated (part of the United States proper) and organized (having an organized government authorized by an Organic Act passed by the U.S. Congress). Through most of U.S. history, regions that were admitted as U.S. states were, prior to admission, territories of this kind.
Currently the only incorporated territory of the U.S. is Palmyra Atoll, which also happens to be unorganized. All other current U.S. territories are unincorporated (meaning that they are not fully part of the United States, with all aspects of the United States Constitution applying automatically), while other former incorporated territories are now states.

Contents

List of organized incorporated territories

Miscellany

See also

List of organized incorporated territories

The following territories within the United States were officially organized by Congress with an Organic Act on the first date listed. Each was admitted as a U.S. state (of the same name, except where noted) on the second date listed. Often, outlying portions of a territory were not included in the new state.

★ Territory Northwest of the River Ohio (1789–1803) became the State of Ohio

★ Territory South of the River Ohio (1790–1796) became the State of Tennessee

★ Territory of Mississippi (1798–1817)

★ Territory of Indiana (1800–1816)

★ Territory of Orleans (1804–1812) became the State of Louisiana

★ Territory of Michigan (1805–1837)

★ Territory of Louisiana (1805–1812) renamed Territory of Missouri (1812–1821)

★ Territory of Illinois (1809–1818)

★ Territory of Alabama (1817–1819)

★ Territory of Arkansas (1819–1836)

★ Territory of Florida (1822–1845)

★ Territory of Wisconsin (1836–1848)

★ Territory of Iowa (1838–1846)

★ Territory of Oregon (1848–1859)

★ Territory of Minnesota (1849–1858)

★ Territory of New Mexico (1850–1912)

★ Territory of Utah (1850–1896)

★ Territory of Washington (1853–1889)

★ Territory of Kansas (1854–1861)

★ Territory of Nebraska (1854–1867)

★ Territory of Colorado (1861–1876)

★ Territory of Nevada (1861–1864)

★ Territory of Dakota (1861–1889) became the State of North Dakota and the State of South Dakota

★ Territory of Arizona (1863–1912)

★ Territory of Idaho (1863–1890)

★ Territory of Montana (1864–1889)

★ Territory of Wyoming (1868–1890)

★ Territory of Oklahoma (1890–1907)

★ Territory of Hawaii (1898–1959)

★ Territory of Alaska (1912–1959)

Miscellany

★ Note that common regional names such as Louisiana Purchase, Indian Territory, and Oregon Country were never formally organized as territories.

★ During the American Civil War, there was (at least nominally) a Confederate-established Arizona Territory (1861–1865), which split Arizona and New Mexico along an east-west line, rather than the Union-established north-south line that persists today. See article for map.

★ Of the current 50 U.S. states, 31 were at one time or another part of a U.S. territory. The exceptions include: the original Thirteen Colonies; Kentucky and West Virginia (both split off from Virginia); Maine (split off from Massachusetts); California (created as a state out of the unorganized territory of the Mexican Cession); and Vermont and Texas (both previously self-declared republics).

★ Since 1959, there have been no incorporated U.S. territories formally organized by an Organic Act.

★ The only remaining part of the United States proper that is not part of a state (i.e., the only incorporated unorganized territory) is Palmyra Atoll, which was part of the Territory of Hawaii but was not included in the State of Hawaii upon statehood in 1959.

See also

★ Territories of the United States

★ Political divisions of the United States

★ Territorial evolution of the United States

★ Organized territory

★ Incorporated territory