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I always thought it was weird what it means for something to be a "country". For instance, England, Wales, Scotland and N. Ireland are all countries according to Wikipedia, but wikipedia also says the UK is a country. I have heard the EU (made up of technically sovereign nations) being compared to the US (common market and i think they have open borders. I think some want to even create a military, though I actually dont even think the EU is a defensive pact) or being called a "super state". On the other hand, our states have less sovereignty (but they do handle, or are constitutionallly supposed to handle, almost all issues not related to foreign policy/defense). The Civil war kind of established the precedent that "states" werent allowed to secede: I suppose that would be the difference between a country and a dependent semi-sovereign 'state'. To be honest, I think secession is probably constitutional (if states joined the Union voluntary, i would assume they could leave). I wonder when the British gave many of their colonies full sovereignty and stopped taxing them. For instance, I dont know how Canada went from a British colony to being considered a sovereign country which owes allegiance to the British head of state. There was actually an invitation for Canada to join the union in the articles of confederation: "Canada acceding to this confederation, and adjoining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to all the advantages of this Union; but no other colony shall be..."