The Confederate States of America is a nation made up of 20 federated states. Because of this shared sovereignty, a Confederate citizen is both a citizen of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. State citizenship is flexible and no government approval is required to move between states (with the exception of convicts on parole). Out of the 20 states, only thirteen were originally states of the United States, two were former territories of the US, while the remaining were never part of the US (either being former states of Mexico or former Spanish colonies).