Everything You Need To Know About US Territories Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Google Pinterest Stumbleupon This article focuses on the territories of the United States It is part of a 4-part series explaining current day situation of the remnants of the colonial empires of the early 20th Century, almost all of which are small islands scattered around the world. Other parts of the series will examine the status of Dutch, British and French territories. The United States came to the colonization game rather late. By the time of the presidency of William McKinley, the world had already been carved up by European powers. With a strong desire to prove itself as the equal to Britain and France, the US closed out the 19th Century by engaging in a war with Spain that took from her the last of her colonies. It turned out that US wasn’t very good at being a colonial power. A former colony herself, it had neither the stomach or long term desire for hold colonies. Its largest colony, The Philippines , was given independence 40 years after it had been ceded from Spain, and it would have been granted independence even sooner if it hadn’t been for WWII.

Today the United States has long since given up its hopes of becoming a colonial empire, but it still holds on to many pieces of its early 20th Century attempt to become one. The story of the US Territories is one of the least known and most interesting parts of American history. Legal Status of US Territories Territories are not new to the United States. Ever since independence the United States has had areas which were not states but were fully part of the country. Most states, outside of the original 13, were territories before they became states. The states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois were created from Northwestern Territory . North and South Dakota used to form the Dakota Territory . In the 20th Century Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii and Alaska all made the jump from territory to state. The creation of territories is addressed in the constitution and is a power given to congress. (It should be noted that Washington DC is NOT a territory. It is the Federal district that is distinct from a territory.) Today there are two criteria that categorize American territories. A territory can be incorporated or unincorporated. A territory can be organized or unorganized. Incorporation of US Territories Incorporated territories are considered to be integral parts of the United States.

Prior to statehood, both Alaska and Hawaii were incorporated territories. In incorporated territories the constitution is in full effect. Incorporated territories would be similar to territories found in Canada (Northwest Territories, Yukon and Nunavut). They are not large enough for statehood, but still considered part of the country. Today the US has only one incorporated territory: Palmyra Atoll . Most people have never heard of Palmyra Atoll, but it is legally the only incorporated territory of the US. It has this status because of a quirk of history. When Hawaii gained statehood in 1959, Palmyra was part of the territory of Hawaii. The act of statehood, which admitted Hawaii to the union, explicitly excluded Palmyra from joining the rest of the Hawaiian Islands from becoming a state. I have searched high and low for an explanation as to why Palmyra was not included with Hawaii as a state, but I could never find a reason. Today Palmyra is owned by The Nature Conservancy and has no permanent human settlement. All other US territories today are unincorporated territories. A such, they are not considered integral parts of the United States that the US has permanent sovereignty over.

Organization of US Territories The other criterion which defines US territories is their organizational status. Organized territories are territories subject to an Organic Act , passed by congress, which establishes a government in the territory. Of the five populated territories in the United States, four of them have passed an Organic Act and are organized territories. They are (with date of organization): Navassa Island (Caribbean) Serranilla Bank (Caribbean) All of the unorganized territories except for American Samoa are uninhabited and have never had any permanent human population. While American Samoa is officially unorganized, it is still self-governed and has a government. Citizens of American Samoa are not US citizens, but rather are US Nationals. They may live and work anywhere in the US, but cannot vote should they move to the United States. US Nationals may apply for citizenship as if they were resident aliens but do not have the same restriction for traveling and living in the US. If you have ever filled out an online form, you might have seen “US Minor Outlying Islands” as a country option in a drop down list. While that is an official designation for the uninhabited islands, no one actually lives there, so I’ve never understood why it is included in country lists.

Populated Territories of the United States For all practical purposes, the United States has five territories, those being the ones that are inhabited. With my recent visit to the US Virgin Islands , I have now visited all five inhabited territories. Here is a brief overview of each territory and some interesting facts about each. San Juan is actually the oldest city in the United States Puerto Rico By far the largest US territory, Puerto Rico has more people than every other territory combined. It is also physically the closest territory to the United States mainland. If it were a state, it would be the 29th largest state in terms of population and it is larger in area than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware. It is also the only US territory that does not have English as its primary language. It became a territory of the US as part of the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War. Attitudes in Puerto Rico have changed considerably over the last century. In the early and mid 20th Century most Puerto Ricans wanted independence from the United States. By the 21st Century, most Puerto Ricans had family members living and working in the US and the desire for independence all but disappeared.

In 2012 the people of Puerto Rico, for the first time ever, preferred statehood over continuing as a territory in a referendum. It is probably the only current US territory that has any reasonable chance at statehood. Tumon Bay, Guam Guam Guam became a US territory in 1898 after it was ceded to the US in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War. It is often called the place where “America Starts Its Day”, because it is located on the other side of the International Date Line. The natives of Guam are the Chamorro people, who also inhabit the Northern Marianas Islands. Guam is actually the southernmost island in the Marinas Archipelago. Europeans first visited it in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan landed on his circumnavigation of the globe. Today the economy of Guam is mostly tourism (primarily from Japan) and the US military. Military bases cover 29% of the island. One of the most interesting attractions in Guam is Yukoi’s Cave. In 1972 Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese soldier in WWII emerged from the jungles in Guam unaware that the war was over.

He became an instant celebrity in Japan and the hole where he lived is a popular attraction for Japanese tourists today. His story was foretold by an episode of Gilligan’s Island. Guam was invaded hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and remained under Japanese control for over two years. The US Virgin Islands were purchased from Denmark US Virgin Islands Unlike Puerto Rico or Guam, the United States didn’t acquire USVI by conquest. It was purchased from Denmark in 1916 via the Treaty of the Danish West Indies for $25,000,000 in gold. The islands were sold prior to the US entry into WWI as to not violate Danish neutrality. The US Virgin Islands lies only 40 miles east of Puerto Rico and is approximately double the size of the District of Columbia. The USVI is the only part of the United States that drives on the left, even though almost all vehicles are American and have left-hand drive. The Virgin Islands group is divided between the United States and the United Kingdom who control the British Virgin Islands as a territory. There are 3 primary islands in USVI: St. Thomas, St. John and St Croix.

St Thomas and St John are connected by ferry, whereas St Croix is located south of the rest of the islands in the archipelago. Most of the island of St. John consists of Virgin Islands National Park. You can still see some Danish influence on the islands including some Danish flags. Chartered flights from Denmark in the winter are the farthest direct flights to USVI. Battle of Saipan Monument, CNMI Northern Marianas Islands The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) is the newest territory of the United States. Although culturally and geographically similar to Guam, the islands have had a very different history, especially in the 20th Century. The islands were, like Guam, part of the Spanish Empire. After the Spanish-American war, the islands were ceded to Germany, not the United States. In WWI, Japan declared war on Germany and used it as a pretext to invade and take over the islands. The islands were liberated during the Battle of Saipan in WWII, one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific Theater.

The islands were put under US management after WWII by the United Nations as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), along with what today are Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands. Unlike the other parts of TTPI, the CNMI choose to remain a US territory rather than opt for independence. On several occasions, the citizens of CNMI have voted to join Guam but were rejected by Guam. The CNMI has had a reputation of corrupt leadership since it became a territory and is probably the largest destination for sex tourism in the United States. When I walked around the capital of Garipan it seemed that almost half the businesses were massage parlors. Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa American Samoa In the late 19th Century, a civil war in Samoa almost lead to the United States and Germany to go to war. Each nation backed opposite sides in the war in hopes of gaining position to use the islands for whaling and as a coaling station. The Tripartite Convention of 1899 divided the Samoan Islands between the western islands (German) and the eastern islands (American). Culturally there is little difference between American Samoa and the country of Samoa.

They are geographically close to each other and there are many families with relatives in each part. There have been some calls for either independence or greater autonomy for American Samoa, but in a 2010 referendum, the majority of people opted to stick with the status quo. Unlike other US territories, Americans need a passport to enter American Samoa and they have their own immigration and passport stamps. American Samoa is noted for having the highest rate of military enlistment of any US state or territory. Former US Territories There are currently four independent countries which were former territories of the United States. One of which came from the Spanish-American war from which the US acquired Guam, and the other three coming from the aftermath of WWII. If the Philippines were a US State, it would have 1/4 the of the population of the combined country. Philippines Many people are unaware that the Philippines were once a US territory. It was ceded to the United States from Spain in the same treaty which ceded Guam. After the conclusion of the Spanish War, the Filipino forces that were fighting Spain for independence turned their attention to the Americans. For several years, American and Filipino forces fought leading to the deaths of thousands on each side.

It is one of the most forgotten wars in US history. There were many in the US who never felt comfortable with the annexation of the Philippines. In the 1930’s the Philippines was declared a commonwealth and plans were developed for a transition to full independence. The Japanese invasion on Manila on December 8, 1941 (same time as the Pearl Harbor attack, but on the other side of the international date line) postponed independence for several years. The Philippines eventually became independent on July 4, 1946. Today, however, the Philippines celebrates their Independence Day on June 12, the day they became free of Spain in 1898. During its brief tenure as a US territory (brief compared to Spain’s 333-year rule), the Philippines had a non-voting representative in the US Congress and was covered by an Organic Act giving Filipinos full rights under the US constitution. Today, if you visit the WWII Memorial in Washington DC, every state and territory is listed in stone pillars including the Philippines, recognizing their role in the war.

If the Philippines had remained a US territory and had become a US state, it would be the 6th largest state by area and largest state by population. In a fictional world where the Philippines is the 51st state, it would consist of 1/4 of the entire US population and have a population almost 3x larger than California. Cuba – Cuba was another part of the territorial transfer from Spain to the US in 1898. However, Cuba was only a US possession for four years. US President Theodore Roosevelt was sympathetic to the Cuban independence movement and the US recognized a free Cuba in 1902. The drink Cuba Libre (aka rum and coke) comes from that period of history. When Coke was first imported to Cuba in 1900, it was mixed with rum and people toasted a free Cuba (Cube Libre in Spanish). The other historical remnant from this period is the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay which was leased from Cuba. A treaty in 1934 made the lease period indefinite and set the monthly payments at $4,085.

The figure was never indexed for inflation so the amount has never changed even though the value would have been the equivalent of $69,000/month in 1934 dollars. Since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Cuba has refused to cash the checks as it does not recognize US control over Guantanamo Bay. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands In 1947 the United Nations created Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) from former Japanese possessions given to them by a League of Nations Mandate. The TTPI existed from 1947 to 1986 when the constituent islands began to seek independence. The above mentioned Northern Marinas Islands is the only part of the TTPI which is still a US territory. All of the former TTPI countries have US Postal zip codes and state codes The Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands are best known as the location of many atomic bomb tests in the 40’s and 50’s on places like Bikini and Enewetak Atolls. The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) was declared in 1979 and the country entered a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1986.

The compact is a unique agreement that the United States has with the former TTPI countries where they have access to many programs which are normally reserved for US citizens. For example, the Marshall Islands has mail delivered to it at US domestic postal rates. It has its own USPS state and zip code. (MH and 969xx). They can also work in the US without a green card. Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) consists of four island groups: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. Like the Marshall Islands, the FSM declared independence in 1979 and signed a compact of Free Association with the US in 1986. The FSM compact of free association also gives Micronesians access to US services and aid. Palau has some of the best diving in the world Palau By population and area, Palau is the smallest of the former TTPI countries. With a population of only 20,000 people and area of 459 km2, it is one of the smallest countries in the world. Palau declared independence in 1981 and signed their compact of free association with the US in 1994.

Palau’s location combined with some of the best SCUBA diving in the world has given it a per capita GDP almost 4x greater than the other former TTPI countries. The Future of US Territories Historically, most US territories have gone on to become states. However, most of those were located in North America and were contiguous to the other states. With the admission of Alaska and Hawaii as states in 1959, the idea of non-contiguous and non-North American states became real. Of the current US Territories, only Puerto Rico has a reasonable chance at becoming a state. They have a population and land mass which would place them in the realm of current US states. It would be in the middle of states population-wise and small, but not the smallest state in terms of land area. Of the remaining territories, only the Northern Marianas Islands has an area larger than Rhode Island. The rest are less than half the size or smaller. The real reason why you won’t see any of the non-Puerto Rican territories become states is population. The most populous non-Puerto Rican territory is Guam which has approximately 1/4 population of Wyoming, the least populous state.

The rest are as small as 1/5 or 1/10 the size. It just isn’t enough for most states to justify giving 2 senators and a representative. Even if they were all to combine, it still probably wouldn’t be enough. Could Puerto Rico become the 51st State??? The case for Puerto Rico becoming a state is becoming more interesting. During the 2012 elections, while everyone was focused on the race for President, for the first time Puerto Rico quietly had a referendum where the majority of voters approved the idea of statehood. With population and land mass within reasonable parameters, the only two stumbling blocks to statehood: economics and language. The per capita GDP of Puerto Rico ($27,384) would make it the poorest state in the union behind Mississippi ($32,967). While it is poorer, it isn’t radically so and probably shouldn’t be that big of an issue. Most new states have been on the frontier where they were poorer than older, more established states. The real issue is language. Spanish is the dominant language in Puerto Rico. They would be the only state with a non-English speaking majority.

While most of the population can speak English, they do so as a second language and at a level of proficiency lower than the rest of the country. Over the last several decades English proficiency has increased dramatically in Puerto Rico as more families have members that work in the US. I would suspect this trend to continue even if Spanish is still the dominant language. English is an official language of Puerto Rico and has been since 1902. It should be noted that there are three US states that have an official language other than English: Louisiana/French, New Mexico/Spanish, and Hawaii/Hawaiian. However in all three states, English is the most widely spoken. During my visit to Puerto Rico, I had no problems getting by in English. My guess is that we are still at least 20 years away from Puerto Rican statehood. For the rest of the territories, the debate will be between the status quo and independence. This is most true of American Samoa, who has an independent sister country next door (Samoa). Likewise, if Guam and CNMI would merge, they would be far from the smallest country in the world.

Milestones: 1866–1898 - Office of the Historian Milestones: 1866–1898 The Spanish-American War, 1898 The Spanish-American War of 1898 ended Spain’s colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere and secured the position of the United States as a Pacific power. U.S. victory in the war produced a peace treaty that compelled the Spanish to relinquish claims on Cuba, and to cede sovereignty over Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines to the United States. The United States also annexed the independent state of Hawaii during the conflict. Thus, the war enabled the United States to establish its predominance in the Caribbean region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Asia. Charge of the 24th and 25th Colored Infantry and Rescue of Rough Riders at San Juan Hill, July 2nd 1898 (Kurz and Allison) The war that erupted in 1898 between the United States and Spain was preceded by three years of fighting by Cuban revolutionaries to gain independence from Spanish colonial rule.

From 1895–1898, the violent conflict in Cuba captured the attention of Americans because of the economic and political instability that it produced in a region within such close geographical proximity to the United States. The long-held U.S. interest in ridding the Western Hemisphere of European colonial powers and American public outrage over brutal Spanish tactics created much sympathy for the Cuban revolutionaries. By early 1898, tensions between the United States and Spain had been mounting for months. After the U.S. battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor under mysterious circumstances on February 15, 1898, U.S. military intervention in Cuba became likely. On April 11, 1898, President William McKinley asked Congress for authorization to end the fighting in Cuba between the rebels and Spanish forces, and to establish a “stable government” that would “maintain order” and ensure the “peace and tranquility and the security” of Cuban and U.S. citizens on the island. On April 20, the U.S.

Congress passed a joint resolution that acknowledged Cuban independence, demanded that the Spanish government give up control of the island, foreswore any intention on the part of the United States to annex Cuba, and authorized McKinley to use whatever military measures he deemed necessary to guarantee Cuba’s independence. The Spanish government rejected the U.S. ultimatum and immediately severed diplomatic relations with the United States. McKinley responded by implementing a naval blockade of Cuba on April 22 and issued a call for 125,000 military volunteers the following day. That same day, Spain declared war on the United States, and the U.S. Congress voted to go to war against Spain on April 25. The future Secretary of State John Hay described the ensuing conflict as a “splendid little war.” The first battle was fought on May 1, in Manila Bay, where Commodore George Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron defeated the Spanish naval force defending the Philippines. On June 10, U.S. troops landed at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and additional forces landed near the harbor city of Santiago on June 22 and 24. After isolating and defeating the Spanish Army garrisons in Cuba, the U.S.

Navy destroyed the Spanish Caribbean squadron on July 3 as it attempted to escape the U.S. naval blockade of Santiago. Secretary of State John Hay On July 26, at the behest of the Spanish government, the French ambassador in Washington, Jules Cambon, approached the McKinley Administration to discuss peace terms, and a cease-fire was signed on August 12. The war officially ended four months later, when the U.S. and Spanish governments signed the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898. Apart from guaranteeing the independence of Cuba, the treaty also forced Spain to cede Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. Spain also agreed to sell the Philippines to the United States for the sum of $20 million. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on February 6, 1899, by a margin of only one vote. The McKinley Administration also used the war as a pretext to annex the independent state of Hawaii . In 1893, a group of Hawaii-based planters and businessmen led a coup against Queen Liliuokalani and established a new government. They promptly sought annexation by the United States, but President Grover Cleveland rejected their requests.

In 1898, however, President McKinley and the American public were more favorably disposed toward acquiring the islands. Supporters of annexation argued that Hawaii was vital to the U.S. economy, that it would serve as a strategic base that could help protect U.S. interests in Asia, and that other nations were intent on taking over the islands if the United States did not. At McKinley’s request, a joint resolution of Congress made Hawaii a U.S. territory on August 12, 1898. Unique Facts About the Caribbean: Spanish-American War Spanish-American War The Spanish-American War took place in 1898, and resulted in the United States of America gaining control over the former colonies of Spain in the Caribbean and Pacific. For several centuries Spain's position as a world power had been slipping away. By the late nineteenth century the nation was left only a few scattered possessions in the Pacific, Africa, and the West Indies. Much of the empire had gained its independence and a number of the areas still under Spanish control were clamoring to do so. Guerrilla forces were operating in the Philippines, and had been present in Cuba for decades.

The Spanish government did not have the financial resources or the manpower to deal with these revolts and thus turned to expedients of building concentration camps (in Cuba) to separate the rebels from their rural base of support. The Spaniards also carried out many executions of suspected rebels and harshly treated villages and individuals thought to be supporting them. The war was a total war with both Cuban rebel and Spanish troops burning and destroying infrastructure, crops, tools, livestock, and anything else that might aid the enemy. Nevertheless, by 1897 the rebels had mostly defeated the Spanish. They were firmly in control of the countryside and the Spanish were holed up in urban centers. These events in Cuba coincided in the 1890s with a battle for readership between the American newspaper chains of Hearst and Pulitzer. Hearst's style of "yellow journalism" would outdo Pulitzer's, and he infamously used the power of his press to influence American opinion in favor of war. Often completely fabricated or just simply inflammatory, Hearst published sensationalized tales of atrocities which the "cruel Spanish" were inflicting on the "hapless Cubans".

Outraged by the "inhumanity" of the Spanish, Americans were stirred up to pushing for an "intervention", which even the most jaded hawks, like a young Theodore Roosevelt, would treat as a mostly dress-up affair. Hearst is famously quoted in his response to a request by his illustrator Frederic Remington to return home from a uneventful and docile stay in Havana, writing: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." There were, however, more genuine pressures pushing towards war. The United States Navy had recently grown considerably, but it was still untested, and many old war dogs were eager to test and use their new tools. The Navy had drawn up plans for attacking the Spanish in the Philippines over a year before hostilities broke out. The end of western expansion and of large-scale conflict with Native Americans also left the Army with little to do, and army leadership hoped that some new task would come. From an early date, many in the United States had felt that Cuba was "rightly" theirs. The so-called theory of manifest destiny made the island just off the coast of Florida seem an attractive candidate for American "expansion".

Much of the island's economy was already in American hands, and most of its trade, much of which was black market, was with the U.S. Some business leaders pushed for conflict as well. In the words of Senator John M. Thurston of Nebraska: "War with Spain would increase the business and earnings of every American railroad, it would increase the output of every American factory, it would stimulate every branch of industry and domestic commerce." In Spain, the government was not entirely averse to war. The U.S. was an unproven power, while the Spanish navy, however decrepit, had a glorious history, and it was thought it could be a match for the U.S. There was also a widely held notion among Spain's aristocratic leaders that the United States' ethnically mixed army and navy could never survive under severe pressure. On February 15, 1898, the American battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor suffered an explosion and quickly sank with a loss of 260 men. Evidence as to the cause of the explosion was inconclusive and contradictory, but the American press, led by the two New York papers, proclaimed that this was certainly a despicable act of sabotage by the Spaniards.

The press aroused the public to demand war, with the slogan "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!". This patriotic belligerent feeling is known as spread-eagleism or jingoism. Wreckage of USS Maine. Expert opinion is still divided; most now consider an accidental explosion of coal fuel to be as likely a reason as any for the ship's fate. Modern analytical tools, especially computer simulations, have all but confirmed this. Few still think a mine could have been the cause. While some people still think that the cause could have been some other form of sabotage, they point the finger at Cuban revolutionaries who hoped to draw the U.S. into the war or U.S. operatives on orders to trigger an inevitable war to oust Spain from the Caribbean. Almost all agree, the Spaniards would have no interest in provoking a war. U.S. President William McKinley was not inclined towards war, and had long held out against intervention, but the Maine explosion so forcefully shaped public opinion that he had to agree. Spanish minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta did much to try to prevent this, including withdrawing the officials in Cuba against whom complaints had been made, and offering the Cubans autonomy.

This was well short of full independence for Cuba, however, and would have done little to change the status quo. Thus, on April 11, McKinley went before Congress to ask for authority to send American troops to Cuba for the purpose of ending the civil war there. On April 19, Congress passed joint resolutions proclaiming Cuba "free and independent" and disclaiming any intentions on Cuba, demanded Spanish withdrawal, and authorized the President to use as much military force as he thought necessary to help Cuban patriots gain freedom from Spain. (This was adopted by Congress from Senator Henry Teller of Colorado as the Teller Amendment, which passed unanimously.) In response Spain broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. On April 25, Congress declared that a state of war between the United States and Spain had existed since April 21st (Congress later passed a resolution backdating the declaration of war to April 20th). The first action in Cuba was the establishing of a base at Guantanamo Bay on 10th June by U.S. Marines. Roosevelt & Rough Riders at San Juan Heights The American navy met the Spanish Atlantic fleet in Santiago Bay on July 3.

Assistant Naval Constructor Richmond Pearson Hobson was ordered by Admiral Sampson to sink the collier Merrimac. Hobson modified a broken down collier and gathered a small crew of eight volunteers, and rigged the vessel with explosives. The plan was to sink Merrimac in the narrow entry of Santiago Harbor, trapping the Spanish fleet within the harbor. The mission was a failure. Hobson and his crew were captured. They were exchanged on July 6, and Hobson became a national hero. The Americans defeated the Spanish and gained control of the waterways around Cuba. This prevented re-supply of the Spanish forces and also allowed the U.S. to land its considerable forces safely on the island. Theodore ("Teddy") Roosevelt became a war hero when he led a charge up the Kettle Hill at the Battle of San Juan Hill outside of Santiago as lieutenant colonel of the Rough Riders Regiment on July 1. The Americans were aided in Cuba by the pro-independence rebels led by General Calixto García. Unbiased reports depict a much less glorified version of events, where demoralized Spanish troops often more quickly surrendered than fought. The U.S.

troops had far more problems dealing with heat and disease than with the Spanish forces, and within a month the island was in U.S. hands. During May 1898, Lt. Henry H. Whitney of the United States Fourth Artillery was sent to Puerto Rico on a reconnaissance mission, sponsored by the Army's Bureau of Military Intelligence. He provided maps and information on the Spanish military forces to the U.S. government prior to the invasion. On May 10, 1898, U.S. Navy ships were sighted off the coast of Puerto Rico. Spanish gunners stationed at Fort San Cristóbal fired the first shot (a 15-cm breech loaded Ordóñez rifle round), missing the USS Yale, an auxiliary ship under the command of Capt. William Clinton Wise. Two days later on May 12, a squadron of 12 U.S. ships commanded by Rear Adm. William T. Sampson bombarded San Juan, Puerto Rico. During the bombardment, many buildings were shelled, terrifying the population of San Juan. On June 25, the Yosemite blocked San Juan harbor.

US Kentucky Volunteers regiment in "Porto Rico" 1898 On July 18, General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the invading forces, received orders to sail for Puerto Rico to land his troops. On July 21, a convoy of 3,300 soldiers and nine transports escorted by the USS Massachusetts sailed for Puerto Rico from Guantánamo, Cuba. On July 25, U.S. troops landed at Guanica, Puerto Rico and took over the island with little resistance. With both fleets incapacitated, Spain realized her forces in the Pacific and Caribbean could not be supplied or reinforced, so Spain sued for peace. Hostilities were halted on August 12. The formal peace treaty, the Treaty of Paris, was signed in Paris on December 10, 1898 and was ratified by the United States Senate on February 6, 1899. The United States gained almost all of Spain's colonies, including the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Cuba was granted independence, but the United States imposed various restrictions on the new government, including prohibiting alliances with other countries.

On August 14, 1898, 11,000 ground troops were sent to occupy the Philippines. When U.S. troops began to take the place of the Spanish in control of the country, warfare broke out between U.S. forces and the Filipinos. The resulting Philippine-American War was long, bloody, and ultimately unsuccessful in quashing the Filipino nationalists' drive for independence, incurring thousands of military and civilian casualties during its fourteen-year span. A war that was in part fueled by the American public's desire to end the alleged abuse of Cuban natives would in the end result in three territorial conquests for the U.S., tens of thousands of Spaniards and Cubans killed, and the extermination of a quarter of a million Filipinos. The Spanish-American War is significant in American history, as it saw the largely pacifist nation emerge as an imperial power, equal at least to any in Europe. The war would mark the beginning of a new American expansionism: over the course of the next century, the United States would have a large hand in various conflicts around the world.

Congress had passed a resolution in favor of Cuban independence before the war started, and after debate the USA decided to allow this, although American forces occupied Cuba until January 28, 1909. The USA annexed the former Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam. The idea of the United States as an imperial power with foreign colonies was hotly debated domestically, with President McKinley and the Pro-Imperialists winning their way over vocal opposition. The American public largely supported the possession of colonies, but there were many outspoken critics such as Mark Twain (i.e. The War Prayer). William Randolph Hearst emerged as an institution: the world's first true media baron. The Hearst papers became so extremely successful at agitating public sentiment in favor of war, that he eventually became an archetypal figure in his own right. He had become more influential than even many politicians, and at various levels would be sought after for that influence. Decades later, a young filmmaker named Orson Welles would immortalize the Hearst archetype with Citizen Kane, a portrayal which William Hearst, in later life, would find quite displeasing, though he reportedly never saw the film himself.

Another interesting but little-noted effect of this short war was that it served to further cement relations between the American North and South. The war gave both sides a common enemy for the first time since the end of the American Civil War in 1865, and many friendships would have been formed between soldiers of both Northern and Southern states during their tour of duty. The 1890s were a period of reconciliation between the former Yankees and Confederates, marked by "Blue-Gray" Reunions and increased political harmony between Northern and Southern politicians. The "Lost Cause" myth took hold in the popular imagination and many former Confederate leaders were held in general high esteem nationally. The 1890s also saw resurgent racism in the North and the passage of Jim Crow laws that increased segregation of blacks from whites, culminating in the Plessy v. Ferguson decision by the Supreme Court in 1896 that codified the "separate but equal" doctrine into law. The Spanish-American War provoked widespread feelings of jingoistic American nationalism that fused often-divergent Northern and Southern public opinion. According to data from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the last surviving U.S.

veteran of the conflict, Nathan E. Cook, died on September 10, 1992 at the age of 106. Over 100 years have passed since the Guanica landing, yet the annexation of Puerto Rico continues to be an intensely debated issue today. "The voice of Puerto Rico has not been heard. Not even by way of formality were its inhabitants consulted as to whether they wanted to ask for, object to, or suggest any conditions bearing on their present or future political status...The island and all its people were simply transferred from one sovereign power to another, just as a farm with all its equipment, houses, and animals is passed from one landlord to another." This statement was part of a pamphlet titled, "The Case of Puerto Rico", written by Dr. Julio J. Henna and Roberto H. Todd, leaders of the delegation that had previously advised President William McKinley on the prospective invasion of Puerto Rico, as part of the War against Spain.

The Spanish-American War was an unexpected twist in the Antillean revolution, a legacy which had seen prominent figures such as José Martí and Ramon Emeterio Betances not only inspire legions to revolt against Spanish rule in the Caribbean, but to form a federation of the Major Antilles, independent of Spain and the United States. "I do not want us to be a colony, neither a colony of Spain nor a colony of the United States," wrote Betances. The people of Puerto Rico have thrice voted to remain a territory of the United States--rejecting measures both for independence and for full statehood within the union. As citizens of a territory, Puerto Ricans are entitled to many of the benefits of statehood but are exempt from Federal income tax and other provisions of Federal regulation. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. Guam-OnLine | Home | Just another WordPress site Tumon & Beach Hafa Adai and Welcome to Guam! Welcome to the United States island Territory of Guam.

Located approximately 3,300 miles West of Hawaii, 1,500 miles east of the Philippines and 1,550 miles South of Japan, the Island of Guam is the Western most territory of the United States and the gateway between the United States and Asia. Guam is located West of the International dateline placing it 18 hours ahead of the West Coast of the United States. Because of it’s strategic location, Guam is an important military and commercial hub between the United States, the Asian Continent and Australia. Guam-OnLine.Com provides a central resource of information about the Island of Guam. Click Here to Help VFW Post 2917, Agat, Guam, burnt to the ground on 25 January 2016. Click above or on the image to see how you can help our veterans rebuild. Approximately 30 miles long and 4 to 9 miles wide, the Northern end of Guam is a plateau of rolling hills and cliffs rising to 600 feet above sea level. Waterfalls, rivers and bays abound throughout Guam ‘s central and southern areas.

Luxury 5 star hotels line the Tumon Bay beachfront and Guam’s unique “duty free” status makes it a shoppers’ paradise. The beaches of Tumon Bay offer gleaming white sand and crystal clear, warm waters for swimming, snorkeling, or just relaxing and enjoying the fantastic sunsets over the Philippine Sea. With its year round warm and crystal clear waters, Guam is one of the most desirable scuba dive destinations in the World. Guam offers seven world class golf courses open to the public and two military courses for authorized military personnel. Guam Leisure Activities Check out some of the many leisure activities that Guam has to offer to include golfing, diving, snorkeling, sailboarding, skydiving, sport fishing or just enjoying the sun, surf and sand. Guam has a number water parks and beach clubs that offer jet skis, windsurfing, kayaking, paddleboats, pools and water slides and various other water sports. Other popular Guam outdoor leisure activities include hiking ( boonie stomping ), skydiving, parasailing, deep-sea sport fishing and more. Guam History Click here for an abbreviated history of Guam from earliest known inhabitants until the present day.

Will not make you an expert, but might peak your interest. The Island of Guam has an ancient history and rich cultural heritage. The original inhabitants of Guam, the ancient Chamorro, are widely believed to have been of Indo-Malaya descent with linguistic and cultural similarities to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The first known contact with the West occurred with the visit of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. Guam was formally claimed by Span in 1565. Jesuit missionaries arrived in 1668 to establish their brand of European civilization, Christianity and trade. During the Spanish period, the Catholic Church became the focal point for village activities and Guam became a regular port-of-call for the Spanish treasure galleons that crisscrossed the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and the Philippines. Guam Landmarks Click above to read about historical, cultural and natural Guam landmarks. Click the Inajaran Pools image, below, for more pictures of Guam. Evidence of Spanish influence can still be seen across the island today and sunken Spanish galleons still lie under Guam ‘s warm waters.

Guam was ceded to the United States following the Spanish American War in 1898 and formally purchased from Spain in 1899. Placed under the administrative jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy, Guam experienced many improvements in the areas of agriculture, public health, sanitation, education, land management, taxes, and public works. The U.S. Navy continued to use Guam as a refueling and communication station until 1941, when it fell to invading Japanese forces shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Guam remained under Japanese control until reclaimed by American forces in July of 1944. Guam Maps These are not detailed street maps, but our maps will get you from the airport to your hotel and many of the major restaurants and attractions. Most rental car companies will provide detailed maps. In 1949, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Organic Act, making Guam an unincorporated territory of the United States with limited self-governing authority, which it remains to this day. Read more about Guam’s rich History and Culture.

Today, Guam is a truly cosmopolitan community with a unique culture, the core of which is Chamorro heavily influenced by the Spanish occupation and the Catholic Church. Strong American influence is evident in the celebration of many public holidays, the form of Government and the pride in being U.S. that is displayed by the populace. Guam ‘s culture has also been influenced and enriched by the Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Micronesian immigrants each group of whom have added their unique contributions. Many of the major hotels provide cultural shows and cuisine. The Chamorro Village in Hagatna offers ancient cultural dances, live reggae bands, and other cultural exhibits and you may also experience a wide variety of restaurants and food stands featuring Chamorro, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Jamaican, Mexican, Filipino and other exotic delicacies. The Current Date,

Question: What U.S. territory in the Pacific was taken from Spain?
Answer: Guam