History Main / ExpandedStatesOfAmerica

* '''Transcontinental American Empire''', where the USA annexes (parts of) countries '''beyond''' the American geographic region. An {{irony}} factor can be added by having the British Isles as one subject of annexation, in a sort of role-reversal of [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution the War of American Independence]]. '''AmericaTakesOverTheWorld''' is the LogicalExtreme of this and has its very own trope page.

'''Notes:''' This trope does ''not'' cover alternate versions of the British Empire that [[AmericaIsStillAColony do]] ''[[AmericaIsStillAColony not]]'' [[AmericaIsStillAColony lose the American colonies in a War of American Revolution]], and which eventually expand to the rest of the American continent(s). '''That means cases like the Holy Britannian Empire of ''Franchise/CodeGeass'' do ''not'' count as examples.'''

** The size of the United States was increased some 20% in 1867 when the Russians, [[IdiotBall believing their territory in Alaska to no longer be economically productive]], sold Alaska to the United States. In part because Russia was on rather good terms with the US at the time, and in part simply so somebody other than Britain would get it.

** The last "official" attempt by America at gaining Canada was the so called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Claims Alabama Claims]], a series of claims the U.S. held against the British for their sale of warships to the Confederacy that the South later used to raid and attack American shipping. One of the key things demanded in exchange for dropping the claims was all or part of Canada (Secretary of State William Seward, who had just bought Alaska, personally favored annexing British Columbia). This fell through due to a number of factors, and the matter was settled via arbitration.

* The alternate history series ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness'' has an [[TheEmpire American Empire]] in all but name. Most of, but not all, of the traditional states are present, albeit some with different names and boundaries. They have also acquired/conquered Mexico, most Caribbean islands, and Central America and divided the territory into new American states. And finally, there is a lone American colony in West Africa. [[DividedStatesOfAmerica Subtracted from this]] is most of real-world New England (and New York), which separated via secession just a few decades after the Revolution and later joined with Canada in a pro-Britain North American bloc.

* This crops up quite a lot in ''Manga/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfiction, ranging from historic retellings of America gaining territory like Alaska and Hawaii, America taking in other countries until they can get back on their feet, political alliances, America having a well-meant but misguided desire to help other nations, or, in darker instances, America going insane and wanting more power.

* In a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxuAgUcZNgQ sketch]] on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'', a man woke up to discover that, while drunk, he had successfully run for president of the United States. During his drunken presidency, he had bullied Cuba, Saskatchewan and Germany into becoming new states.
* An episode of ''Series/TheGoodies'', America infects Britain with a virus that turns people into clowns, so they can turn it into a 53rd state.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Future-Drama" has Bart's girlfriend Jenda mention the fifty-first state Saudi Isrealia.

* In Taylor Caldwell's The Devil's Advocate, the totalitarian Democracy of America has overrun Canada and Mexico ten years before, apparently because they could.

** 2017 saw another referendum that had 97% approval for statehood...but only 23% voter turnout due to a boycott by the opposition parties. A scheduled 2020 referendum is hoped to settle the issue definitively, by being a simple yes or no vote on statehood without regard to any other alternative options.

* There's a conspiracy theory that there is a plan to merge the US, Canada and Mexico into the North American Union, analogous to the EU. It's unclear how much truth there is to this plan in the halls of power, though given the nature of the US Constitution, it would be far easier for Canada and/or Mexico to apply for statehood than it would be to form a superstate. Additionally, it is arguable how much the EU, or something like it, counts as a "state"[[note]] 'State' meaning "country". Since the conspiracy to bind the formerly-British States together in a political union a la 'The Articles Of Confederation' (out of which the USA got its 'Bill Of Rights') the USA has become a state in itself and not just an alliance/collection of states. Though (like Australia) the USA's states are still called 'states', they're only administrative regions/provinces/sub-states [[/note]][[note]]Well... mostly. Technically "state" means any governing body that owns land, which is usually thought of as a country. Each of the United States owns the territory it's made of by Imminent Domain, with the Federal government retaining ownership at a higher level. It's sort of a sub-let deal.[[/note]]. One of the more bizarre elements of this conspiracy theory was the claim that a new currency call the "Amero" would be established. Even though the US and Canada both call their currency the dollar, and Mexico's currency is the peso (while not ''directly'' translating to English as "dollar", the term "peso" has the same historical origin in the Spanish 8-real silver coin which was known in English as the "Spanish dollar"). Thus if such a merged currency ever happened it would almost certainly just be called "dollar" in English and "peso" in Spanish, rather than a transparent knock-off of the EU's Euro currency.

** One of the weird barriers against DC statehood is that the Constitution explicitly says that the national capital should be part of a "Federal District", and thus simply converting Washington, DC from a federal district to a state may be unconstitutional. In the 2020 statehood bill (the first such bill to pass the House), this was circumvented by creating a new federal district named "The Capital" whose territory is just a handful of major federal government buildings. The bill also declares that the new state would be called "Washington, Douglass Commonwealth", named after abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass.

** It was also criticized heavily as a thinly-veiled attempt to gerrymander state borders, since despite a large majority of Californians being Democrats, four out of the six new states created would have Republican majorities, since no effort was made to have the "Six Californias" be similar to each other in population size.

** 2017 saw another referendum that had 97% approval for statehood...but only 23% voter turnout due to a boycott by the opposition parties.
* Texas had the opportunity to join the U.S. as ''five'' states when it was annexed, although this was not exercised. While this would've actually conferred greater political influence (each of the five would've gotten 2 Senators, dramatically shifting the Senate's balance of power), Texans had already formed a unified identity that they didn't want to give up.

** There have also been suggestions that Eastern Washington split off to become its own state, motivated mostly by the fact that Eastern Washington is mostly conservative, while Western Washington is mostly liberal, but dominates state politics thanks to a larger population. The other proposal that gets floated is attaching Eastern Washington to Idaho, which is seen as more plausible on a population basis (Eastern Washington contains just over a fifth of Washington's population, but if merged with Idaho would make up almost half of the new state's population) and because it wouldn't create any new US Senate seats.

** It was also criticized heavily as a thinly-veiled attempt to gerrymander state borders, since despite a large majority of Californians being Democrats, four out of the six new states created would have Republican majorities.

** The size of the United States was increased some 20% in 1867 when the Russians, [[IdiotBall believing their territory in Alaska to no longer be economically productive]], sold Alaska to the United States.

* One of the more recent attempts to expand by the United States was, in 1946, their attempt to annex Greenland for military purposes from Denmark. The United States offered $100 million (in 1946 dollars) for the entire area, but Denmark refused (although they did agree to allow the U.S. to build an Air Force base in the territory).

* In ''Disney/MeetTheRobinsons,'' time-traveler Lewis tries to pass himself off as a foreign exchange student from Canada. Apparently by 2037 it's a state called "North Montana."

* The ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'': Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and the Marshall Islands are all US states.

* Taiwan had been a potential target of American annexation for a small period of time during the Qing dynasty era. Two American diplomats recommended that the U.S. annex Taiwan (then commonly known as Formosa) from Qing Dynasty China, mostly because it was believed that the British were also interested in the island, but the idea was rejected rather firmly by the American government. Commodore Matthew C. Perry, during his second voyage to open Japan in 1854, landed in Keelung, a major port on Taiwan. In his reports back to the government, Perry encouraged the annexation of Taiwan in order to use it as a coaling port, and because of its useful in countering European monopolization of the trade routes. The U.S. failed to respond to his proposal to claim sovereignty over Formosa. Ironically enough, there is a small contingent of people on Taiwan today who claim that Taiwan is, legally U.S. Territory as it was never (technically) turned over to official Chinese control by the Treaty of San Francisco (the final peace treaty that marked the end of the war against Japan), nor was it turned over subsequently. On Taiwan, according to polls, given the Choice between joining China and becoming a U.S. state, most Taiwanese would support statehood.

* Martin Smith's (before he started calling himself Creator/MartinCruzSmith) ''Literature/TheIndiansWon'' mixes this with [[DividedStatesOfAmerica The Disunited States Of America]]. The no-long contiguous US has an independent Indian Nation separating its two sections, but the Philippines and other Pacific islands, and possibly South Korea, are states.

* S.M. Starling's Literature/TheDraka series is chock full of superstates like this, the US included. Since Canada did not benefit from a large population boost following the American Revolution, it fell to the US invasion of 1812. Since they were free states, the slave-owning southerners lobbied for full annexation after the Mexican War. William Walker succeeded in establishing a Central American empire, which was then annexed along with Cuba, the rest of the Caribbean, and the Philippines. In a similar vein, The Grand Republic of Colombia (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, northern Peru and northwest Brazil) never broke up, nor the Empire of Brazil (Brazil & Uruguay), so South America is comprised of just 4 nations. Africa and the Mideast is likewise unified, but as a brutal slaveocracy under the boot heel of the eponymous Draka.

* All of North America unites in ''Franchise/MassEffect'', forming the United North American States. Unlike the ''Halo'' example, in the ''Mass Effect'' backstory the decision to do this triggered a Second American Civil War in 2096 (which led to the [[MonumentalDamage destruction of the Statue of Liberty]], incidentally). Interestingly, and perhaps due to the relatively recent unification of North America in the franchise's lore, people in the UNAS seem to retain modern regional identities. A Vancouver-born character for instance identifies himself as Canadian on multiple occasions in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', and FlavorText refers "Mexican" and "American" corporations that exist in the game's world.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', takes place in an AlternateHistory where the United States of America includes the 51st state of Vietnam ... or at least speculation in the newspapers that such might happen in the near future. The [[Series/Watchmen2009 TV series]] shows that indeed happened.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', takes place in an AlternateHistory where the United States of America includes the 51st state of Vietnam ... or at least speculation in the newspapers that such might happen in the near future.

* '''United Americas''', where the USA has united North America and South America (or at least all of the major states and most of the smaller ones) under its banner. The resulting superstate may or may not suffer from recurrent rebellions due to social and economic inequality being imposed by "the rich North/'Anglos'" on "the poor South/'Latinos'".

* In ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' Puerto Rico and Guam have been admitted as states, while several existing states have split up to bring the total to 60 by year 2100.

* Various regions of New York State have argued for partition into new states, such as the secession of New York City and its sururbs as their own state separate from Upstate New York (one proposal said that they would remain "New York" while Upstate New York gets renamed "Buffalo"), the reverse secession of Upstate New York from New York City (with one proposal to become the state of Niagara), or Long Island (half of said suburbs) as its own state. The State Legislature has prevented these from going beyond being ideas due to issues over taxation or red/blue politics.

* While not an example of territories being made states, Creator/JonStewart's ''Literature/AmericaTheBook'' does claim that one of the possibilities of the massive influx of Hispanic immigrants is the creation of new states from bits and pieces of existing ones in order to consolidate white power, such as the unification of Manhattan and Westchester into Manhattachester. The total number is mentioned to be 81.

* In Calbear's Literature/TheAngloAmericanNaziWar, the Russian Far East [[http://quantumbranching.deviantart.com/art/The-Anglo-American-Nazi-War-258952264 becomes the US state of West Alaska]].

* There have been several attempts to make the District of Columbia into a state, though these efforts have largely been stalled since the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment failed in 1985. Though the end effect would be a 51st state, proponents of this plan are primarily seeking representation in Congress over anything else, and would be happy with an arrangement where the city's residents become voters in Maryland (the former section of DC on Virginia's side of the Potomac was already given back to Virginia as what are today Arlington County and parts of the city of Alexandria in 1846), although Maryland's Baltimore-based political alignment is opposed to a large non-Baltimore bloc joining their population. On a national level, Democrats tend to favor DC statehood (which would create two reliably liberal Senate seats) while Republicans tend to favor retrocession to Maryland (which would maintain the current balance in the Senate, only creating one safely blue House seat, possibly to be counterbalanced by a new House seat in reliably red Utah).

* There have been several attempts to make the District of Columbia into a state, though these efforts have largely been stalled since the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment failed in 1985. Though the end effect would be a 51st state, proponents of this plan are primarily seeking representation in Congress over anything else, and would be happy with an arrangement where the city's residents become voters in Maryland (the former section of DC on Virginia's side of the Potomac was already given back to Virginia as what are today Arlington County and parts of the city of Alexandria in 1846), although Maryland's Baltimore-based political alignment is opposed to a large non-Baltimore bloc joining their population. On a national level, Democrats tend to favor DC statehood (which would create two reliably liberal Senate seats) while Republicans tend to favor retrocession to Maryland (which would maintain the current balance in the Senate, only creating one safely blue House seat, possibly to be counterbalanced by a new House set in reliably red Utah).
* Any state, with the consent of its own legislature and Congress, can change its borders or have new states carved out of it. (E.g., West Virginia.[[note]]In this case, Virginia's "consent" was based on the Federal government recognizing a pro-Union government in what became West Virginia, rather than the secessionist government in Richmond, as the Virginia state legislature.[[/note]])