<P> In many instances, an enabling act would detail the mechanism by which the territory would be admitted as a state following ratification of their constitution and election of state officers . Although the use of such an act is a traditional historic practice, a number of territories have drafted constitutions for submission to Congress absent an enabling act and were subsequently admitted . The broad outline for this process was established by the Land Ordinance of 1784 and the 1787 Northwest Ordinance, both of which predate the present U.S. Constitution . </P> <P> The Admission to the Union Clause also forbids the creation of new states from parts of existing states without the consent of both the affected states and Congress . The primary intent of this caveat was to give Eastern states that still had western land claims (there were four at that time) a veto over whether their western counties could become states . This clause has served the same function since, each time a proposal to partition an existing state or states has arisen . </P> <P> New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress . </P> <P> Between 1781 and 1789 the United States was governed by a unicameral Congress, the Congress of the Confederation, which operated under authority granted to it by the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution . The 11th Article authorized Congress to admit new states to the Union provided nine states consented . Under the Articles, each state cast one vote on each proposed measure in Congress . </P>

States that were countries before joining the union