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The United States of America is a federal republic [1] consisting of 50 states, a federal district (Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States), five major territories, and various minor islands. [2] [3] Both the states and the United States as a whole are each sovereign jurisdictions. [4]
Image:Blank US Map with borders.svg, a blank states maps with borders. Image:BlankMap-USA.png, a map with no borders and states separated by transparency. Image:US map - geographic.png, a geographical map. On Wikimedia Commons, a free online media resource: commons:Category:Maps of the United States, the category for all maps with subcategories.
Map of USA with state names WLM.svg; Map of USA with state names as.svg; United States Hockey League locations.svg; Map of States in the USA by the status of taxation on digital goods.svg; USA States Map - Educational.svg; SVG development
The term "United States," when used in the geographic sense, refers to the contiguous United States (sometimes referred to as the Lower 48, including the District of Columbia not as a state), Alaska, Hawaii, the five insular territories of Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and minor outlying possessions. [1]
States are divided into counties or county-equivalents, which may be assigned some local governmental authority but are not sovereign. County or county-equivalent structure varies widely by state, and states also create other local governments. States, unlike U.S. territories, possess many powers and rights under the United States Constitution.
The first documented use of the phrase "United States of America" is a letter from January 2, 1776. Stephen Moylan, a Continental Army aide to General George Washington, wrote to Joseph Reed, Washington's aide-de-camp, seeking to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the Revolutionary War effort.