CH8

Alaska had several roadblocks to state hood. One of the main ones was a perception of Alaska as underdeveloped. Congress viewed Alaska as having too few people and not enough of an infrastructure. The tax base was also not there for a long time. People figured that the state might not be able to support itself. A second large roadblock was the inclusion of Hawaii as a state. Hawaii and Alaska were both pushing for statehood at the same time and many thought it was too much too include both. Eventually Hawaii agreed to let Alaska go first.