The parameters from the get go spoke specifically to the population within the entity known as "America" or more correctly "The United States of America".
But the issue with that is that the parameters also called for looking at the "cultural" nation instead of just the political nation.
My point is (and always has been) that cultural nations
aren't limited by geo-political boundaries.
One of the reasons I mentioned Canada is because of Nova Scotia and other parts of the original New England (As defined by the charter granted by James I to the Plymouth Council for New England) that are now part of Canada.
Hell, New Brunswick was split off of Nova Scotia in 1784 to make a home for the tories who left the newly founded US after we got independence. This is because Nova Scotia would probably have become the 14th US colony if not for the British Naval presence and loyalist government in Halifax. A goodly proportion of the Nova Scotians were in support of the revolution (Unlike Newfoundland which was loyalist to the core).
Colonial Nova Scotia at teh time of the American revolution represents a
perfect example of how nations are not defined by political boundaries. The
people of Nova Scotia were the same as the
people of the 13 US colonies. Their
government (and the subsequent geo-political boundaries that government created) was
all that separated them from their American counterparts.
Even today, I would argue that the people of New Brunswick are more similar to people from Maine than the people of Arizona are (Especially considering the History of that region post .
And when we're talking about shared history (a portion of the "cultural Nation" definition provided), there's 156-200 years of shared history between Nova Scotia/New Brunswick and Maine prior to Maine getting statehood (assuming that the "shared history" began when these two regions were defined as part of New England in 1620 and ended in 1820 when Maine became a US state).
Whereas, the shared history between Maine and Arizona is only 98 years (assuming it started when Arizona became a State in 1912, and considering the previously mentioned exclusion of US territories that's a fair starting point.
If we
do decide take it back to the territory era, then Arizona shares 149 years of history with the old confederate states and 147 years of history with the Yankee states (Arizona was a Confederate Territory by choice before becoming a US territory by force. Also the Confederate Arizona territory was the southern portions of the current states of Arizona and New Mexico, while the US Arizona territory was modern Arizona. An interesting side-note regarding "Cultural Nations" and geo-political boundaries can be seen in that little historical note, if I do say so myself
). If we go back to when ths region was part of New Mexico territory, the shared history increases to 160 years for portions and 157 years for other portions (formation of most fo the territory in 1850 and Gadsen purchase in 1853).
If we go back to the territory days for Maine, its shared history with Nova Scotia/New Brunswick gets decreased to 163 years for portions of it (From 1620 to the end of the Revolutionary war) and 195 years for other portions due to the shifts in the geo-political boundaries between those regions that occured in the interim.
I point all this historical stuff out to show that the
political boundaries are, at best, poor determining factors when discussing "nations", especially considering the fact that nations are defined by the commonalities of the
people.