eli5: Since the U.S is described as ”a union between 50 free states” and gets more compared with the structure of the EU than, say, the counties of England; how come Texas or Oklahoma doesn’t compete independently in the olympics, or have independent representation in the UN? A union isn’t a nation
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That description is a pretty archaic and never really too accurate idea.
In the early days of the US, during the revolutionary war and period immediately following it, each state operated as sorta mini-nation itself. People would specifically identify as a “Virginian” or “New Yorker” less than an American. The idea of the US was fairly loose, it was organized together, but there wasn’t a sense of national unity and each state was kinda its own thing, which caused problems. Each state wasn’t really an independent nation though, it was something in-between a mini-country and part of another country– and it didnt really work.
The US constitution started in 1789 and at that point we have what resembles the modern US more, each state is NOT in any way independent, just part of the whole
From then until the civil war however, there was still very loose interpretations on if the US was a single thing or made up of many parts– and people on both sides of the conflict were unsure. The north favored the idea of a single US, while the south was… well, they liked slaves. However again the idea of the US being a single nation not a nation made up of smaller nations was still not entirely solidified until post civil war on all sides.
Post civil war, its over. The US states are merely administrative boundaries
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