Talk:State cessions

Article title: plural

Having been at "State cessions" since it was created eleven years ago, last week this article got moved without discussion to "State cession" with the justification that this brings it into line with the MOS. But actually WP:PLURAL states that "articles on groups or classes of specific things" should have plural titles. That's exactly what the state cessions are, falling under the more specific example "groups of distinct entities that are nevertheless often considered together (preceded almost invariably by the word 'the'), such as the Florida Keys, the Americas, or the Rivers of New Zealand". "A state cession" isn't a thing that periodically happens in American politics, where a state sometimes gives part of itself back to the federal government, and we need an article on the generic phenomenon; rather "the state cessions" occurred in a specific time period/geographic location, and are always treated by historians as a single phenomenon. There's only one instance of a state ceding land claims to the federal government outside of the 1780–1804 period (Texas), and that was in a unique circumstance that doesn't have any likelihood of repeating itself in the near future and doesn't justify generalising "state cession" into a discrete phenomenon that would merit the singular article title. This is why the article introduces its topic with the words "The state cessions are": there simply isn't a way to start the article off with the words "A state cession is" that wouldn't be wordier, more contrived and less logical than using the plural. As such the article should be back at its old, plural title, both because that's where Wikipedia's naming conventions actually say it should be, and because it's better there. Binabik80 (talk) 05:12, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Background

The background section is woeful: it should be an enumeration of who claimed what, and by what authority. The map helps. but the text should explicitly say. New York's claim in particular was elastic, based on sovereignty over the Iroquois rather than over a defined land area. Sbalfour (talk) 16:16, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

I'll agree with that but the expertise on that is limited. Please edit in that information for those areas you are familiar with. SkoreKeep (talk) 16:09, 3 September 2019 (UTC)

Table showing dates ceded and dates accepted

In this table, there is a list of colonies with the dates their lands were ceded to the US and the dates those lands were accepted by the US. I notice Virginia ceded their lands in 1781 and they were accepted by the US in 1777. Perhaps someone who knows about this could add a note to the "Claims and cessions" column explaining how this was possible. Blumrosen (talk) 11:27, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm sure they mean 1784; Territorial_evolution_of_the_United_States notes that's when Virginia ceded the Northwest Territory. --Golbez (talk) 14:30, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Comment about native Americans

Were are Native Americans? Those are CLAIMS of white settlers colonies and states, not real situation in North America at the end of XVIII and beginning of XIX century. In reality those territories belonged to Natives. A such I accuse that article as beeing POV. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.75.21.7 (talk) 10:34, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

I put this in the correct spot on the talk page, so ... what are you asking? This is about the states, not the people that lived there. --Golbez (talk) 13:24, 25 September 2020 (UTC)

Texas

The State of Texas never had the right to divide itself into more states, despite the persistent urban legend. The law passed by the US Congress admitting Texas to the union as a state allowed for the future possibility of creating more states from Texas, but it never gave Texas any right to divide itself. States may only be created by Congress, and they never ceded that authority to Texas. Parts of several states include land from Texas's extravagant land claims, but those states were all admitted to the union by the US Congress. None of them were created by the State of Texas dividing itself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.196.202.97 (talk) 14:40, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

finally somebody says it. IonlyPlayz2 (talk) 12:33, 6 May 2024 (UTC)