Insular area

In the law of the United States, an insular area refers to U.S.-associated jurisdictions not part of the

50 states

or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the

Philippine Islands

and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.

Three of the U.S. territories are in the Caribbean Sea, eleven are in the

Pacific Ocean

, and all three freely associated states are also in the Pacific. Two additional Caribbean territories are disputed and administered by

Colombia

.

Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants to the

United States Congress

the responsibility of overseeing the territories. A series of

U.S. Supreme Court

decisions known as the Insular Cases created a distinction between "incorporated territories", where the full Constitution of the United States applies, and " unincorporated territories", where only basic protections apply. The only current incorporated territory,

Palmyra Atoll

, is uninhabited.

A U.S. territory is considered "organized" when the

U.S. Congress

passes an organic act for it. All of the five U.S. territories with a permanent non-military population have constitutions, locally elected territorial legislatures and executives, and some degree of political

autonomy

. Four of the five are "organized", but American Samoa is technically " unorganized" and subject to the direct jurisdiction of the Office of Insular Affairs.

History

The first insular areas that the United States occupied were Baker Island, Howland Island and Navassa Island (1857) then Johnston Atoll and Jarvis Island (both in 1858) would be claimed. After the War between the United States and Spain in 1898, several territories were taken that are still under U.S. sovereignty (Puerto Rico and Guam, both in 1898). Palmyra Atoll was annexed along with the Republic of Hawaii (formerly a Kingdom) that same year. American Samoa was reclaimed the following year (1899). In 1917, at the height of

World War I

, Denmark sold the Danish Virgin Islands to the United States.

The former British-American condominium of Canton and Enderbury, consisting of the atolls of Canton and Enderbury in the northeast of the Phoenix Islands, became part of this new island state on July 12, 1979, the day of independence from the State of

Kiribati

.

The U.S. Navy annexed Kingman Reef in 1922.

Spain

had sold the

Northern Mariana Islands

to Germany in 1899. The islands passed to Japan, which in turn lost them to the United States in 1945 after the end of World War II. The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, located on the southern side of

Guantanamo Bay

and taken from Spain in 1898, is not a U.S. outlying territory but a U.S. military base on formally "leased" land on the island of

Cuba

.

The Marshall Islands became self-governing in 1979 and fully independent along with the Federated States of Micronesia in 1986.

Palau

achieved independence in 1994. The three countries maintain sovereignty with free association status with the United States, which provides them with defense assistance and economic resources.

Timeline

;August 28, 1867
:Captain

William Reynolds

of the USS ''Lackawanna'' formally took possession of the

Midway Atoll

for the United States.
;August 13, 1898
:United States Navy under Admiral

George Dewey

, United States Army's Eighth Army Corps under Major General

Wesley Merritt

, and Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur Jr. captured the City of Manila from Spain after Governor-General of the Philippines

Fermin Jáudenes

surrendered the city, which then remained Spanish-occupied even after the declaration of Philippine Independence from Spain and the establishment of the First Philippine Republic on June 12, 1898.
;February 4, 1899
:

Philippine-American War

began between the First Philippine Republic and the newly arrived US Military Government.
;April 11, 1899
:The Treaty of Paris of 1898 came into effect, transferring

Guam

, the

Philippines

, and

Puerto Rico

from Spain to the United States, all three becoming unorganized, unincorporated territories. Puerto Rico's official name was changed to ''Porto Rico'', a phonetic reinterpretation of the Spanish name for the territory.
;April 12, 1900
:The Foraker Act organized

Puerto Rico

.
;June 7, 1900
:The United States took control of the portion of the

Samoan Islands

given to it by the Treaty of Berlin of 1899, creating the unorganized, unincorporated territory of

American Samoa

.
;April 1, 1901
:General

Emilio Aguinaldo

, President of the First Philippine Republic and Filipino leader in the Philippine–American War, surrendered to the United States, allowing the U.S. to form a civilian government for the Philippines.
;February 23, 1903
:Under the terms of a 1903 lease agreement, the United States came to exercise complete control over

Guantanamo Bay

,

Cuba

, while

Cuba

retained ultimate sovereignty over the territory.
;August 29, 1916
:The Philippine Autonomy Act or Jones Law was signed, promising the

Philippines

independence.
;March 2, 1917
:Jones–Shafroth Act reorganized

Puerto Rico

. This act conferred United States citizenship on all citizens of Puerto Rico.
;March 31, 1917
:The United States purchased the Danish West Indies and renamed it as U.S. Virgin Islands under the terms of a treaty with

Denmark

.
;May 17, 1932
:The name of Porto Rico was changed to

Puerto Rico

.
;March 24, 1934
:The Tydings–McDuffie Act was signed allowing the creation of the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
;November 15, 1935
:The Commonwealth of the Philippines officially inaugurated Manuel L. Quezon as the President of the Philippine Commonwealth, held at the steps of the Old Legislative Building. The event was attended by 300,000 Filipinos.
;December 8, 1941
: Commonwealth of the Philippines was invaded and occupied by Japan during World War Two, initiating "the most destructive event ever to take place on U.S. soil". Over 1,100,000

Filipino American

civilians died during the war.
;February 3 - March 3 1945
: The month long Liberation of Manila led by General

Douglas MacArthur

took place, and consequently resulted in Manila Massacre committed by the Japanese forces throughout the Battle of Manila. An estimated 100,000 Manila civilians were killed during the massacre.
;August 1945
: The United States regains full control of its colony of the Philippines following the Philippines campaign.
;July 4, 1946
:The United States formally recognized the Philippine independence, establishing the Third Philippine Republic and inaugurating

Manuel Roxas

as the President of the independent Philippines. The independence ceremonies and inauguration rites were held at the

Quirino Grandstand

.
;July 14, 1947
:The

United Nations

granted the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to the United States, consisting primarily of many islands fought over during World War II, and including what is now the Marshall Islands, the Carolina Islands, Federated States of Micronesia,

Northern Mariana Islands

, and

Palau

. It was a trusteeship