If you were asked to point out all the land owned by the United States, what would
you point out?
The continental U.S., Hawaii and Alaska are certainly the most obvious, and most are familiar
with our 5 territories, most notably Puerto Rico and Guam.
This is forgetting something, however; our 9 Minor Outlying Islands located in the Southwest
Caribbean and throughout the Central Pacific.
These Minor Outlying Islands include, from East to West, Navassa Island, a disputed claim
with Haiti, Jarvis Island, Palmyra Atoll, Kingman Reef, Johnston Atoll, Baker Island,
Howland Island, Midway Island, and Wake Island, a disputed claim with the Marshall Islands.
In addition to these 9 islands, the United States also claims, but does not administer,
two islands in the Southwestern Caribbean—Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank, both controlled
by Colombia.
These islands are collectively known as the U.S. Minor Outlying Territories because none
have any inhabitants outside of temporary military and research personnel.
This does not mean, however, that the story behind the United States’ acquisition of
these islands is not interesting—beginning with the industrial revolution in the mid
19th century.
Sparking technological and cultural changes throughout the Western world during the 1850s,
the industrial revolution allowed for news of guano—deposits of seabird excrement used
by South American societies as an incredibly effective fertilizer for centuries—to quickly
spread to Britain.
The first shipment of guano was sent from Peru to the British in 1840, and, by the 1860s,
hundreds of thousands of tons had been shipped to England—leading American companies to
begin eyeing the industry.
Seeking to encourage these ventures, the United States passed the Guano Islands Act, enacted
on August 18th, 1856.
Simply, the law states, ‘whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of
guano on any island, rock, or key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government
[...], [they] may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to
the United States,’.
In essence, this piece of legislation allowed, and technically still allows today, citizens
to claim any unclaimed island, as long as the island has guano deposits.
It wasn’t that guano deposits didn’t exist or couldn’t form in territory already held
by the United States, but these islands had the perfect climate—hot and dry—to allow
the deposits to solidify and be harvested.
Over 100 islands have at some point been claimed for the U.S. under this act, however all of
these claims no longer exist or remain dormant today outside of 7 current Minor Outlying
Islands—Jarvis, Baker, and Howland Island, acquired October 28th, 1856, Navassa Island,
October 31st, 1858, Johnston Atoll, September 6th, 1859, Kingman Reef, February 8th, 1860,
and Midway Island, August 28th, 1867.
Two other Minor Outlying Islands were claimed by the U.S. through different means—Wake
Island and Palmyra Atoll.
The earlier of these to be claimed, Wake Island, was acquired on January 17th, 1899.
The U.S. planned to use the island as a strategic refueling and cable relay station for the
rapidly expanding Navy, as it was located approximately halfway between Hawaii and East
Asian territories, including the American island of Guam and foreign interests like
the Philippines.
On January 17th, 1899, under orders from President McKinley, the commander of the USS Bennington
landed on Wake Island and raised the American flag after a 21 gun salute.
Midway Island would be chosen to host the cable relay station instead of Wake Island,
however the claim continues to exist.
Palmyra Atoll, on the other hand, was acquired by different means.
The atoll was first claimed by an American under the Guano Act in 1856, however, no guano
deposits existed on the island, meaning the claim was never legitimized.
6 years following this, the Kingdom of Hawaii, then a sovereign nation, sent two Hawaiian
citizens to the Atoll who claimed it for the Kingdom on April 15th, 1862.
It would remain under Hawaiian control until the kingdom was eventually annexed by the
United States in 1898, making Palmyra -- and all of Hawaii -- an incorporated territory
of the U.S. Obviously, Hawaii would later become the 50th state to join the Union in
1959, leaving Palmyra to remain as an incorporated territory of the U.S., making it an outlier
among our other Minor Outlying Territories.
‘Incorporated’ means the U.S. Constitution applies within the territory, while ‘unincorporated’
means it only applies partially.
Palmyra Atoll is the only incorporated territory remaining -- the previous, Hawaii and Alaska,
became states -- placing this Atoll with zero inhabitants above the 5 islands on which a
collective 4 million Americans live.
The second aspect of these statuses is organization.
An ‘organized’ territory means Congress has passed an organic act for the territory,
laying out the structure of government within the region.
The organized territories include 4 of the 5 inhabited territories, which have a need
for a government.
Without an organic act passing Congress, a territory is considered ‘unorganized’,
which includes all of the Minor Outlying Territories, because no local government is needed.
The two Minor Outlying Territories not administered by the United States, Bajo Nuevo Bank and
Serranilla Bank, are both claimed by the U.S. as unorganized, unincorporated territories,
despite the islands being administered by Columbia.
Several other nations, including Jamaica and Nicaragua, claim these islands for themselves,
These contradictory claims prompted the International Court of Justice to rule on the matter in
2012, upholding Columbian authority.
Our Minor Outlying Territories are an interesting footnote on American territory abroad and,
despite being claimed for somewhat strange reasons in retrospect, it is important to
understand the territorial evolution of our nation and keep in mind the Americans that
live on our territories -- albeit not these ones.
This is 435American, thanks for watching.