Territory - geography.

Territory - geography. Territory, name given in the United States to a partially self-governing section of the national domain that has not been granted statehood. The major U.S. territories are the District of Columbia on the mainland; American Samoa and Guam in the Pacific; and the Virgin Islands of the United States in the West Indies. Puerto Rico, now a commonwealth, was a U.S. territory until 1952. Alaska and Hawaii, respectively the 49th and 50th states of the Union, were territories until 1959. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands was administered by the United States from 1947 to 1986 as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The territories and Puerto Rico are not regularly represented in the U.S. Congress but are allowed to send a delegate, who is given a seat in the House of Representatives with a right to take part in the debates but not to vote. For information on other U.S. territories, see Midway Islands; Line Islands; Wake Island. By the U.S. Constitution, the Congress is given power "to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States." From the beginning this clause was construed as giving the powers incident to jurisdiction as well as to ownership, and even before the adoption of the Constitution the Northwest Territory was regularly organized by the old Confederation Congress, which for this purpose passed the Ordinance of 1787. This ordinance served as the model for much of the subsequent legislation in the same field. In Canada and Australia, a territory is an administrative region that, although largely self-governing, has not attained the status of a province or state. For more information on the governance of Canadian territories, see Northwest Territories; Nunavut; Yukon Territory. For information on the mainland territories of Australia, see Australian Capital Territory; Northern Territory. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.