Texas, New York, Florida & California - Could These US States Be Independent?
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- Опубликовано: 6 июн 2024
- ▶ In this video, I explore the idea of certain US states potentially becoming independent nations. Highlighting New York, New England, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, and California, I explore their size, population, and economic viability as key factors. Each state boasts unique cultural identities and economic strengths that could sustain them independently. New York's diverse population and robust economy, including its financial sector, present potential for international success. Similarly, Florida's tourism and strategic location offer prospects. California's innovation and Texas's energy reserves could bolster their global standing, drawing on historical independence. Additionally, New England states share cultural ties and economic synergy, hinting at potential union upon independence. Speculative yet thought-provoking, envisioning these states as independent entities prompts discussions on their potential successes and challenges.
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▶TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
01:07 New York
03:28 Florida
04:35 California
06:02 Texas
07:06 New England
08:52 New Jersey
09:52 Summary
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*Do you think any other states would do well as their own country?*
pennsylvania (unless u already said it idk i didnt watch the video yet)
I’d say colorado. We already are running at a surplus.
I think Georgia, North Carolina and Washington would.
The Old Confederacy states would work.
Illinois, Chicago will keep it alive, I love my home state
What If Central America united as a single country
They did from the 1820s to, I believe, the 1840s
@@eliplayz22I was wondering if it could survive as a country today. That's if those Central American countries united in today's World 🗺️.
@@planetarystargazer oh, I see now. In that case, Idk
Well you have trash like Daniel Ortega in the way @@planetarystargazer, he won't allow anyone to run against him without making up some bogus corruption accusations and the rest of the government follows along with him. He's Trump posing as a leftist, he has ushered in stricter abortion laws than Texas.
Then you have Bukele, who has zero respect for civil rights, and it's not like it's only because the crime rates were a legitimate national emergency. None of the people he locked up will ever have their cases reviewed. And the way he's playing with the money supply is inviting a greater disaster than he's attempting to solve.
Too may dictators and not enough popular support to get rid of them, that's the problem in a nutshell.
oh yes! i wanna know more about that
I think New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania could form a pretty powerful country together
@@JG-MV MA would also be a welcome addition but I would expect them to fall in with New England if the states began seperating
New York financial Center would die if it leaves the U.S.
@@1mol831 that's a very good point that I honestly didn't account for
@@1mol831 I think London post-Brexit provides a window into what New York City might experience: Some challenges, but not death. Consider how strong Singapore is as a financial center without any connection to a larger market. Also consider what happened to Hong Kong after being integrated with China: Their situation has declined. So there are several moving parts to this.
I do think that in any scenario where the US federal government was dissolved and the State governments became sovereign over their own territories, those three states (or at least NY and NJ) would definitely form their own union centered on NYC, or an even larger union with CT/MA/RI (or possibly the entire NE states) and MD, since the Northeast Corridor would keep these areas economically integrated. They may lose their western territories west of the Appalachian Mountains to a Great Lakes/Rust Belt union though.
5:09 as a Californian, I didn’t know we were bigger than Sweden, Japan, and Germany
Damn, our state is really huge
California and Texas alone dwarf certain European Countries. The problem with California is its politics. It’s driving people away. Like my State.
As a proud New Englander, I can tell you that even though we share the same region, there's a major difference in the political leanings of the average person from Massachusetts and the average person from New Hampshire.
Interesting! Are Vermont & New Hampshire more similar then? And the other 3/4 their own thing?
@General.Knowledge I would say that New Hampshire and Maine are more similar. Both rural and fairly Libertarian minded in general. MA, RI, and CT are similar that they're mostly urban and liberal minded. Vermont is distinct. Very rural like NH and ME, but liberal politically. Hope this helped!
I don't think the difference looks that big to people outside New England, and in fact the gap between northern and southern New England has recently shrunk in my opinion. On one side you have a national Republican party that has completely rejected what traditional New England Republicans stand for, and on the other side you have southern New England liberals growing more uneasy with wacky California-led liberalism. None of the fringe stuff is happening here, excluding Cambridge. The hysterical narratives dominating both sides of the national political discourse are not in line with traditional New England yankee pragmatism. All we really disagree about up here is whether or not the government should spend money.
@@General.Knowledge New England can (generally) be split into two cultural regions: the rural, quiet, northern half and the urban, busy, southern half. They both share a common New England attitude of minding your own business, being "kind but not nice", and cutting to the chase instead of exchanging pleasantries but I think it manifests a little differently in the two halves. You could probably make it work if it were a confederation of Northern New England and Southern New England, and then divide those halves into their respective states. As someone born and raised in NH, I feel that NH has more in common with ME/VT than CT/MA/RI.
@@AWSMcube Sound pretty nice in general. More european-like than the rest of the US
This would be a cool series to continue. I Would add Cascadia, Utah, or Louisiana. A great lakes state would be interesting too, like Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Illinois.
I back the Michigan Idea, relations with Canada could go so much farther, along with the st. Lawrence river access to major cities to foster diplomatic relations such as Toronto and Quebec city would go smoothly along with the new republics mentioned for new england, great stuff
Definitely Cascadia!
As a Utahn, I would recommend including parts of Idaho. Maybe just the entire Jellobelt.
Louisiana wouldn't be able to support itself, as it would have to import damn near everything for our current way of life.
I like this video. As a native Californian, I can see my state, Texas and New England doing fine on their own after the first decade. Newly independent countries always struggle in their first decade and the fledgling US was no exception. I think another honorable mention would be Cascadia (Washington and Oregon).
Cascadia is also made up of British Columbia, parts of Idaho, and parts of California
The U.K. voted to leave the EU in 2016. The electorate were promised all sorts of advantages. It appears that it isn’t going so well for Joe Public.
@@davecooper3238 That'd be because of the half of their establishment that was pro-EU that dragged their feet and dragged out the process as long as possible
@@avrowolf What has that to do with people reportedly being unhappy with the increased amount of sewage leaking into rivers & surrounding sea.
The EU had warned the U.K. that their sewage discharges were above prescribed limits. The population were told EU regs are an imposition stopping the U.K. from having there own stricter environmental standards.
The reality is that the number of sewage outlet monitoring stations have been reduced. Pus the number of days the companies are allowed to discharge untreated has increased.
Only one of many Brexit promises broken.
So nothing to do with people dragging their feet.
@@davecooper3238 Nice deflection I guess (probably had to dig deep for that, don't think anyone was reporting on that)? Doesn't really change what my lying eyes were seeing from across the pond
Another state video this is getting good
Very cool video.
Thanks!
Rolling home to Old New England brothers ✊
Great video.
Thank you!
Very interesting
Good vídeo
Nice video !
New Jersey represent!! Thanks for the shoutout dude. Most people blow off NJ. Glad we got a mention
You're welcome! It's true it often goes unnoticed for some reason
(for good reason)@@General.Knowledge
@@Chase92488like?
Thought Pennsylvania would be another ideal candidate for independence since it was after all the home of the Declaration of Independence. Wouldn’t it be best if New Jersey and New York joined together?
Also thinking Washington and Oregon.
Western Washingtonian here. Realistically, the I-5 corridor breaks off from the eastern halves (who join Idaho) and links BC with California. I think we'd do okay, a la New Jersey. The high-speed rail along the Pacific would be a lock at that point.
Oh yeah, GO NEW YORK! Thanks for the vid.
Thank you for watching!
FYI, thats the flag of NYC not New York State on the title screen.
True! I just hate NY's state flag so I used the city one instead
@@General.Knowledge It's not only inaccurate, it perpetuates the thought that there's nothing more to New York than NYC.
@@jhpratt No one outside the US knows or even cares what the flags are. It's not all about you
@@dansouthlondon9873 this is a video about the U.S. though...
@@General.Knowledge No, the entire state should change to that flag
Colorado should be the Switzerland of North America.
With the various cantons in the mountains, eastern plains, and front range.
Plus the the best part, no illegal aliens to sneak in
I live in New Hampshire and there’s a very small but vocal movement for secession from the US. They’ve tried to get it on the ballot and the proposal actually just got rejected by the state house. I personally can’t see NH surviving on its own.
You could also join the New England Independence Campaign
I think that realistically all the border regions with Canada would try to join Canada if the US explodes but Canada didn't.
The economic benefits of being in such a large market with free movement is simply too large.
And the Great Lakes region (including Upstate NY) has far to easy trade with Canada to not immediately strength ties to them.
Of course, if the USA explodes its probably taking Canada and a bunch of the world's economy with it.
I'm from Michigan and I love my homeland very much, I always strive for it to be the best it can be, as I have immense pride in my homeland.
I wholeheartedly believe michigan could be independent, and thrive as it's own country, based on its name sake, the great lakes.
If Michigan became independent, it would have serene republic of Venice levels of location for trade, as the great lakes already provide lots of shipping of resources around, and there's already two huge markets if it becomes free. The US, and Canada, plus, you could use the St. Lawrence River out to sea.
If other states become free as well around Michigan, even better, as water trade will facilitate more economic prosperity.
Plus there's plenty of natural resources, such as mining. Farming. Lumber.
And if Detroit became the manufacturing hub of the Midwest again. Michigan could be quite the regional power.
Minnesota will ship you our vast iron lumber and agriculture products if you help us defeat the twin cities
It was mentioned in the video but it's vitally important to remember, especially when talking about things like relative wealth and GDP, that these states or groups of states, have the standing they have precisely because they are a part of the whole that is the USA. Take that away, go off on your own, and that dynamic stops.
Some of these places may do OK if they were to strike out on their own but I'm betting they'd find it a helluva lot harder than they think.
Not really 😂😂😂 you're forgetting that these are key players in the whole American economic system 😂😂😂
Key word there... "American" economic system.@@antoniodasilva1230
100%. The US is more than the sum of its states. So if each went their own way they wouldn't do as good as they do now, just independently.
@@antoniodasilva1230key players that only exist because of their place in a wider whole.
For starters a lot of economic regions cross state boundaries, including the extreme example of the NYC metro being in 3 states. (Downstate NY, the Northern half of NJ, and Fairfax county CT)
Major ports like LA, NY, and New Orleans are so incredibly busy not because they have high demand, but because they hand so much trade for the inland regions of the country/continent.
The EU is basically giving europe the economic half of what the USA gives to its states.
If you removes that effortless free movement and 0 tarrif interstate commerce you are going to damage these economies.
I'm not saying they would freefall to rock bottom, but it would definitely cause/worsen a recession.
This is very true. I was thinking about how he said that both Texas and Florida have an aerospace industry but most of that is the federal space industry. They're getting that money and funding from the other states. Without the other states then they're going to have to figure out a way to fund their aerospace industry.
Cascadia (or the Pacific Union): California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii -- ideal combination for a strong commercial alliance with cultural affinity.
Now do the Midwest/Great Lakes/Rust Belt
My geography teacher showed us a video of you but I am watching you since about 2021 or 22
Nice! Which one did they show?
I couldnt find the name but it was the one where you compared mongol empire and rome and other things@@General.Knowledge
That's why every state should do it's own thing since it disagrees with one another and we don't want the other states to control our state
Fun Fact: There are more people living in Los Angeles County, alone than in 40 of the 50 United States
Can you do nations or regions which would fo well to combkne into a unified state? (Maybe Central America, parts of Africa, Caribbean)
I'm proud to be from New England, but we have more to gain within the United States than without. To the other New Englanders, what do you think about forming regional institutions above the states but below the federal government aimed at promoting cross-state economic development and our New England identity?
Be more English 🎉
I think regional cooperation is definitely an important stepping stone if an independent New England is ever to have a chance. Off the top of my head the only thing I can think of that we currently have in place is the Regional Student Program that allows New England college students to enroll at other New England state universities as a discounted rate compared to what other Americans from out-of-state would pay. One proposal I would make is extending the Massachusetts health care system to other New England states wishing to participate. Obviously New Hampshire would freak the hell out at that idea so just leave them out of it, let New Hampshire be New Hampshire, but I think Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut could be interested if they don't all have to go it alone. Then maybe the infrastructure put in place to accomplish that lets the 6 states more easily cooperate in other areas.
I also believe that Pennsylvania is another state that would be a powerhouse if they leave the US because I feel like Pennsylvania has more potential than New Jersey but I’m happy that New Jersey got represented
They need a coastline
@@jodo4661 Pennsylvania does have a coastline
Here’s An Idea: What If Cascadia (Bioregion) Became An Independent Country?
I can't think states can leave due to the 1860s civil war
Can you make a comparaison about languages ?
In the case of the US, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. All the states mentioned rely heavily on federal money, especially in times of natural disasters. Could California, Texas and Florida even protect their own borders? And what about travellers from other US states.
We have the same sort of movements every now and then from Western Australia, as they see themselves as putting more into the Commonwealth of Australia than they get back.
With the exception of Texas, they don’t protect their borders now.
I mean they still have national guards and Texas California and Florida account for 12% 12% and 8% of all military recruits each year. Texas also has the tradition of militarized law enforcement via the Texas Rangers as well so overall I think they could all defend themselves if they prioritized properly
It looks like Texas is protecting its own borders now since the Federal Government , Biden Administration, refuses to stand up to their obligation !
I saw this video on my recommended and the first and only thing I noticed about the thumbnail was that you use the flag of New York City for the state of New York
My money on Texas, New England federal states !!!
What about actual movements like the greater idaho project?
That’s never going to happen because Idaho doesn’t even want Eastern Oregon.
I have a video coming up about it! Out in a few weeks :)
You should have talked about Casacaidia
The whole North East region would make a powerful country on its own. NY, NJ, CT and New England are very similar politically and culturally. I can see this new country being closely aligned with Canada and Europe more so than the rest of the US.
PA+NJ+NY would be a pretty kickass country actually. But I prefer the union as-is.
The Great Lakes would be a strong nation, given access to the outside world. 47 million people with a $3.6 trillion GDP. Lots of manufacturing and farming, we produce what the world needs.
10 States support the other 40 States.
VA, NY, TX are in that 10.
Aerospace in Texas is mostly financed by US Govt. That would likely move out of Texas to AL or NV. And the Florida chunk would likely move up the coast to Delmarva or SC.
@5:49; ..."potential issues with water"...what do all commercial crops need to grow?
Pretty sure the network area is mostly self sufficient when it comes to industry.
If the US Balkanized then the Midwest should pull together as a single country
Yea extremely powerful
@@JohnFreyholtz-ii8ju i mean they would control a large portion of the agricultural lands if so. So yeah what you said.
And industry
Florida would also lose the massive Social Security and Medicare funds that support its economy.
I would see Florida having lots of wars.
Why
This all depends on if other nations would recognize them and trade with them, otherwise good video
Good point! External recognition would be key
@@General.Knowledge
Trade and military would be a key for that
**You have 20 missed calls from the CIA**
every state could survive on its own, and most will do better than a large amount of other countries. but we are stronger together.
Hmmm. Interesting 🤔
Hawaii could be its own kingdom. Not sure if there is any historical precedent for that though.
Before the coup of 1893, Hawaii was its own kingdom.
You do realize New York State is basically unpopulated except for Long Island and New York City, right? There was a brief movement back in the 50s to make New York City its own state, but it fizzled out quickly.
With around 6million people Upstate would be the 20th state by population, hardly unpopulated.
Especially factoring in how much is intentionally left undeveloped as nature preserves, because wilderness has a value. (The Adirondack park was formed to protect the Erie Canal as one of the first things the environmentalist movement accomplished, and that's mainly because NYC needed that canal to stay operational to protect their bottom line.)
@@jasonreed7522 For that much area, that's not much. North Korea is smaller and has 4x the population.
@@slook7094Most American states are still less densely populated than upstate New York. It's a larger population in a smaller area than Finland or Norway. Upstate isn't Manhattan but it ain't Wyoming or Alaska either, it's pretty normal for an Anglosphere region.
@@maninredhelm All measures of population density for New York are skewed by Long Island and the five boroughs.
New Jersey and New York will argue because of some islands and territorial waters.
And then NY will return to its original solution for these problems, Bigger State Diplomacy.
If all the states became independent i would expect Upstate to Divorce downstate, but not before we take parts of NJ and CT to get the entire NYC metro area within NYS.
Keeping jersey but not putting in Pennsylvania is crazy
Probably because PA is landlocked
Oklahoma would be a very interesting country considering how a huge chunk of it belongs to Native Americans. Hopefully one day we will actually see a Native American country!
Okay, (or OK since we're on Oklahoma) I'm gonna sound like a scammer, save for this at first part.
the RUclips channel "Legal Eagle" did a video on some court decisions regarding Oklahoma and Native American land: ruclips.net/video/7gr6DpjEmWo/видео.html
I thought it was interesting and thought since you mentioned the state and the Native Americans that you might also find it interesting. Presuming you weren't aware of them.
Great point! I should have added it here
Pretty soon for California you are going to have to change UK to Germany. We passed UK years ago and quickly closing on Germany.
Would be interesting to see how North Carolina would stack up if it was a country, or some merging of a couple of states into a single nation, like Washington, Oregon, and Idaho into one nation. Then there is the great plains, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming and Oklahoma into one nation... maybe. Then there is the Great Lakes region, I could see those state uniting into one nation.
3:19 NYPD is already bigger than some militaries. And permanent military installations can presumably go to the state breaking off, so they start with Westpoint and probably some more.
What about Alaska or Hawaii? The states most likely to succeed with their current abilities, populations and resources are New England, Alaska, maybe Hawaii as a tourism country like the Maldives or the Bahamas, Delaware Virginia Maryland, West Virginia and maybe eastern Kentucky as a group, Wyoming Idaho Iowa Montana and the Dakotas as a group, Wisconsin & Minnesota together,
bro included jersey but not cascadia
As a New Yorker not from the city, I am annoyed at the usage of the NYC flag for the whole of the state (on the thumbnail)
Same here
Yeah sorry about that, it's just that on a thumbnail NY's state flag is so similar to all the other states with a blue field and state seal on top of it.
New York could probably become a naval power
Not with the kind of people we have here.
I’d like to see if Louisiana would be viable for independence
New England does not mostly agree on policy and political issues. The three northern states and the three southern states are substantially different. Also, Connecticut is functionally a part of New York City, and upstate New York is culturally closer to New England than New York City.
Not all parts of Connecticut. The majority of the state is culturally close to New England. Only the southwestern part, Fairfield County, is culturally closer to NYC.
@@bluegold1026 You can see the division by looking at a map of Yankees/Sox fans
NYC takes half of Jersey and southwest CT with it.
Upstate is a weird cultural crossroads between New England and the Midwest/Rustbelt with some of its own uniqueness.
Realistically if the USA exploded i would expect Upstate to join Canada, or whatever new nation forms around the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. The Lakes' trade is simply too important for the region. (And in a hypothetical Great Lakes Republic i expect Toronto to become the Capital as the largest city) NYC would probably share the fate of the rest of the northeast corridor cities. (DC - Boston)
I *think* California still has a bigger population than Canada, though I may be incorrect because our population has been shrinking in the last few years.
Each of these countries would have to provide for their own defense, the single largest discretionary item in the US budget. So a fair analysis would look at the burden each state would have. Florida, being a peninsula, might have the lowest burden.
I think teh DC/Maryland/Virginia area would make an interesting nation.
Floridda's citizens is its wildlife.
😂😂😂😂
As an Alabama boy, I highly recommend not repeating our mistakes.
Ofc NJ could be a country, we got slightly more land and people than Israel and our economy is slightly bigger by GDP
It would make sense to have the state of Albany (New York state minus NYC and Long Island). Still none of this is realistically happening...we've had the same lower 48 states/boundaries (and I don't think hardly any counties were added/changed either?) since 1912 and making any changes would require the approval of both Congress and all the state legislatures involved...and there would have to be a LOT better reasons for it besides partisanship.
Poor Canada. Outclassed economically by California, Texas and New York -- each with smaller populations.
That’s the flag of the City of New York. Not the state.
Some states are really powerful even compared to developed countries, for example Texas has half the population of South Korea and yet its nominal GDP and GDP per capita is higher
Florida at the moment could work* as a nation, but due to the effects of global warming after around 100 or so years most of the state would be submerged making it far weaker, and the odds would be most of its population moves to avoid the flooding, with the only solution being to do a similar approach as the Netherlands to keep its chance to thrive. But that’s just how I view it and I don’t mind if you guys think otherwise.
The state of new work is my fav💀
Texus was independent for 9 years after independence from Mexico
And the Vermont Republic was independent for 14 years. But both Vermont and Texas pale in comparison to the Kingdom of Hawaii's 98 year reign.
Hawaii could be too. Just over 100 years ago they were their own country
True! Plus they're already so far away
I have question on you. From which country are you
Portugal
Portugal!
Oh thanks for this Information I’m from Germany 🇩🇪
@@General.Knowledge Ha! I was just saying we hardly hear anything about Portugal, outside of CR. It's like the people are hiding...😂
What about things suchas natural resources in the cases of production of electricity, gas for automobiles, natural gas for heating and cooking, food production ? I dont think New York produces enough of any one food for its population.
That's why they invented import-export commerce :-)
Lol too fast😂
What if there was United Malay Archipelago States (Malaysia, Philippines,New Guinea, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, East Timor, Cocos Islands, Christmas Islands and Caroline Islands)
Not gonna happen as West Papua has wanted independence since it became apart of Indonesia, PNG would rather join Australia, Philippines would probably rather breakup than joining a larger country, and East Timor would no way in hell join anything with Indonesia.
NY would need to take atleast Northern New Jersey and Fairfax County Connecticut with it to preserve the greater NYC metro area, which is the financial core of the state.
But realistically without the freedom of movement and security from being within the USA the state would be much worse off. A consequence of being in such an economic union with all the other states for so long is an economic codependency to hold them together. (This is basically the origin of the EU, to get France and Germany to "marry" their economies and make war between them unthinkable due to the economic devastation is would cause both of them. So far atleast is has worked.)
Super regions of the US would have to break off together like when the Confederacy left, it was the entire southern slaver economy that left as one entity.
Yeah literally. They need to preserve the Tri-State area
Appropriate to use the New York City flag for all of New York lol
What if Austria and Hungary united as a single country today?
Brazilian States that could be their own Countries.
I think the entire north east would make a great new country .
Skyscrapers was born in Chicago 🎉
As a New Yorker New York dont survive a year as a nation knowing this place
Separatism is always moral.
Freedom of Association.
Im From Mindanao, The Philippines I Love California and Texas Idk why i love them
I think all of the US states could cut it as independent countries. Even a state like Minnesota would end up with an area that would rank between Serbia and Azerbaijan, a population that would rank between Singapore and the CAR (or, in Euro terms, between Denmark and Finland), a GDP that would rank between South Africa and Iran (or, in Euro terms, between Denmark and Czechia), and, if it maintained a military the size of its current National Guard, a military roughly on par with Ireland.
You didn’t show a map of Florida’s coastline with climate change like you did with New York!
Meanwhile states seceding being illegal:
❤❤
Honestly, every state could be its own country. Theres plently of small economy nations. Does a small economy make Chad not a nation? No.
There's no justification for any state to be its own country except for Hawaii
@@silverletter4551 I didnt say anything about justification, jack.
@@silverletter4551 and Alaska
True, but also realize that small economy states would become 3rd world countries. They benefit way more from being in a union with other states than being independent.
A union of New England, New York and New Jersey would compete with Germany and Japan for 3rd largest economy in the world. The 3 nations would be ranked 3-4-5 in different orders depending on which metric you use. It would surpass the United Kingdom, let alone Old England. Perhaps the new nation could be named "New United Kingdom," although it would conspicuously lack a king. And civil war would surely break out once Boston and New York nominate their own local sports heroes to the throne.
A great video to prepare for an upcoming civil war. Personally, I think that if that happens, the New states would push into apalatia and midwest, Texas and Florida would recreate the confederacy, but this time with great planes, and California would just quickly grab the mountain and be like "screw this, I'm out, call me NCR (New Cascadian Republic)". Speaking as a Californian.