the.com/statehood
The bureaucratic glow-up where a place stops asking permission and starts collecting taxes.
means The legal status of being a fully recognized state, with sovereignty, borders, and a seat at the grown-ups' table.
from From Old English 'staet' borrowed via Latin 'status' (condition, standing), plus the suffix '-hood' meaning a state of being — making statehood literally the state of being a state.
US clubLast admitted: Hawaii, 1959, member fifty.
Recognition trapSome states exist only if enough others agree.
Star mathEach US state adds a flag star, eventually.