U.S. territorial sovereignty

In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States,^[1] including all waters (around islands or continental tracts). The United States asserts sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing its territory.^[2] This extent of territory is all the area belonging to, and under the dominion of, the United States federal government (which includes tracts lying at a distance from the country) for administrative and other purposes.^[1] The United States total territory includes a subset of political divisions.