Formal US colonization outside North America began during the administration of William McKinley, with the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the seizure of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam, and the unrelated annexation of Hawaii.

Contents

1 Hawaii 2 Guam 3 The Philippines 4 Samoa 5 Virgin Islands

Hawaii

Before 1898 there was already a large American settlement on Hawaii, and American agricultural corporations made up a large part of the economy. These interests supported U.S. annexation of the islands, but the native population was opposed. Annexation and subsequent immigration of Americans and others made the islands a generally Americanized and loyal part of the country, though some opposition to U.S. rule continues to this day.

Guam

In Guam, settlement by foreign ethnic groups was small at first. After World War II showed the strategic value of the island, construction of a huge military base began along with a large influx of people from other parts of the world.

Guam today has a very mixed population of 164,000. The indigenous Chamorros make up 37% of the population. The rest of the population consists mostly of Caucasians and Filipinos, with smaller groups of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Micronesians, Vietnamese and Indians. Guam today is almost totally Americanized. The situation is somewhat similar to that in Hawaii, but attempts change Guam's status as an 'unincorporated' US territory have yet to meet with success.

The Philippines

In 1898 the United States lent strong support to Emilio Aguinaldo's native liberation movement and helped to defeat Spanish occupation forces. Aguinaldo and his supporters declared independence, but the U.S. reversed its policy and annexed the islands. The freedom fighters resisted, and the Philippine-American War ensued. (This conflict has until recently been called the Philippine Insurrection; for instance, the Library of Congress continued to use this name until 1999.)

The Philippines became a U.S. colony in the fashion of Europe's New Imperialism, though colonial practices in the U.S. were substantially more benevolent than those practiced by the European powers. The independence movement was not subjugated until 1913, after 4,000 Americans and 250,000 Filipinos had died. The English language was made compulsory, but the native Tagalog also gained official status in 1937. Both languages are official today. The Filipinos welcomed the American reconquest from Japan in 1944, and regained their independence in 1946.

Samoa

The Treaty of Berlin, 1899 divided Samoa between the U.S. and Germany. American Samoa was under the control of the U.S. Navy from 1900 to 1951. From 1951 until 1977, Territorial Governors were appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. Immigration of Americans was never as strong as it was, for instance, in Hawaii; indigenous Samoans make up 89% of the population.

The larger western portion became a territory administered by New Zealand under the auspices of the League of Nations, then a United Nations trusteeship, and gained independence in 1962. The eastern part has remained under US control, though the two parts still enjoy a close relationship.

Virgin Islands

In 1917 the United States purchased the former Danish Colony of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas, which is now the U.S. Virgin Islands.