VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Getting to Know Them ■ Guest Commentary: “Most countries have given up their colonies. Why hasn’t America?” ■ Teachers Notes: U.S. Territories and Possessions ■ Quiz: Island IQ ■ e-Replica Activity: Territory, Possession Sovereignty | Create a Topic and News Alert ■ Island Cards: The Islands: U.S. Territories and Possessions Nov. 13, 2017 ©2017 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Not sure if the U.S. still has territories or other possessions? This resource guide provides Teachers Notes: U.S. Territories and Possessions, a concise reference that is accurate as of November 2017. The United States has three Territories, two Commonwealths and three Compacts of Free Association. In addition, the guide includes Possessions — islands in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean with very different uses. ISLAND IDENTITY After reading the guest commentary, “Most countries have given up their colonies. Why hasn’t America?,” and reviewing the island cards, students will have a basic introduction to these U.S.-owned and U.S.-protected islands. The Island Quiz may be used to test their retention or to work in groups to determine the correct answers. For a more extended introduction, use e-Replica features — Search, Topic and News Alert — and The Post archives for current articles. At the end of Teachers Notes, D.C., states, countries, zones and a bay with special relations with the U.S. are included to add another dimension to this focus. Teachers might organize research of the islands and these entities by acquisition time period, purpose/use, or original country of discovery/colonization. You will find many ways of getting to know them. 2 Nov. 13, 2017 ©2017 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program MADE BY HISTORY • Perspective Most countries have given up their colonies. Why hasn’t America? month, Guam made headlines when citizenship, unable to access full BY DAVID VINE North Korean leader Kim Jong Un democratic rights because politicians threatened to fire potentially nuclear- have long favored the military’s tipped missiles at the island. freedom of operation over protecting • Originally Published September 28, 2017 The people of Puerto Rico, the the freedoms of certain U.S. citizens. U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, as Residents of the American With President Trump visiting well as those in the little-mentioned territories are ruled from the Puerto Rico next week, another long- Commonwealth of the Northern nation’s capital — a city whose ignored part of the United States Mariana Islands and American people themselves are second-class will draw national attention. In the Samoa, are all too accustomed to citizens lacking representation in past three weeks, Puerto Rico and being forgotten except in times of Congress — but barred from voting the U.S. Virgin Islands have been crisis. But being forgotten is not in presidential elections, denied hit by two powerful hurricanes, the worst of their problems. They Senate representation and limited to causing widespread devastation. Last are trapped in a state of third-class electing a nonvoting member of the CLARITZA JIMENEZ/THE WASHINGTON POST Hurricane Maria's devastating blow to Puerto Rico has renewed interest in how the island's relationship with the U.S. functions. 3 Nov. 13, 2017 ©2017 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program House of Representatives. (People After the Spanish-American War, occupied by Japanese troops. After born in American Samoa actually U.S. officials proudly referred to brutally suffering at the hands of the have fourth-class citizenship because their new possessions as colonies. Japanese for 32 months, Chamorros they don’t get U.S. citizenship The Navy designated all of Guam a expected their suffering and bravery automatically at birth.) U.S. naval station. Technically, the to be rewarded with citizenship and Which raises a pressing question: island was one large military base: self-rule, if not statehood. Why, in 2017, decades after the civil Naval officers served as governors Military officials thought otherwise. rights and decolonization eras, does and generally ran Guam like a ship. They wanted direct military — not the United States still have colonies In a pattern that has mostly continued civilian — control over as many and citizens who lack full democratic to this day, the rights of the people of islands in the Pacific as possible. At rights by law? Guam came second to the military’s. their urging, the government held The answer is largely simple, but In a series of cases, the Supreme onto Guam and the other colonies as troubling: Because the desires and Court upheld the colonized status what euphemistically became called power of the United States military of Guam’s indigenous Chamorros, territories. The government granted have overwhelmed the desires and whose ancestors had lived there for the Philippines independence in 1946, rights of colonized peoples. almost 4,000 years. The court ruled but pressured the former colony into a The tangled history of the military that as “alien races,” Guam’s people 99-year rent-free lease on 23 military and citizenship in these colonies (and Puerto Ricans and Filipinos) were installations. played out most clearly in Guam, entitled to neither U.S. citizenship nor On Guam, the Navy reestablished which, along with Puerto Rico, the full constitutional rights. military rule and began a major base Philippines and uninhabited Wake The Navy controlled Guam until building campaign that displaced Island, became a U.S. colony as a World War II, when it became one people from their lands or prevented result of 1898’s war with Spain. of the few parts of the United States many interned by the Japanese from VICTORIA WALKER, DANIELLE KUNITZ/THE WASHINGTON POST Tensions between North Korea and the United States escalated on Aug. 8, after President Trump warned the country to stop threatening the U.S. 4 Nov. 13, 2017 ©2017 THE WASHINGTON POST VOLUME 17 ISSUE 3 An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program returning home. Military installations and other constraints under U.S. law, 800,000 people without adding new occupied as much as to 60 percent as well as oversight from powerful schools, hospitals or sewer systems of the island, transforming it into members of Congress. and building a shooting range atop an increasingly powerful military But bases in Guam and the other the 9/11 Memorial. outpost and high-profile Cold War territories, by contrast, offer the Although each U.S. colony has target. military unmatched freedom from its own complicated history, these Only after years of Chamorro many of the restrictions found at places have remained colonies to a protest did Guam become an home and abroad. As Maj. Gen. great extent because the military can “unincorporated territory” in 1950. Dennis Larsen bluntly told a reporter operate there without fearing eviction This status provided Chamorros in 2004: “Guam is a U.S. territory. and with greater freedom than in with U.S. citizenship and limited We can do what we want here, and the 50 states. This fact, as well as rights to self-governance. Congress, make huge investments without fear ongoing racism against people the however, maintained ultimate control. of being thrown out.” Supreme Court called “alien races,” In the words of the Department of The military frequently has used is why the United States still has the Interior, Guam remained a place this freedom to behave with casual third- and fourth-class citizens. where “only selected parts of the disregard for people in the U.S. The United States is decades United States Constitution apply.” colonies, acting in ways that would overdue in acknowledging these In the decades since 1950, Guam’s be unimaginable in the 50 states or in colonial relationships, admitting their status has not advanced. The island a foreign country. After World War impoverishing effects and giving has subsequently become a major II, the military disposed of hundreds the people of the U.S. colonies the Navy and Air Force base for deploying of thousands of pounds of ordnance democratic rights they deserve. Given forces throughout East Asia and a in Guam and the Northern Marianas all Guam’s people have suffered, home for some of the nation’s most through detonation, burning or while they sit on the front lines of the powerful weaponry. dumping at sea. A dumpsite near nuclear conflict with North Korea; Why have territories like Guam Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base given how Puerto Ricans and U.S. become so central to U.S. military has leached dangerous and toxic Virgin Islanders are now suffering, might? Precisely because the people compounds, and the base itself is only to have the government overlook there lack the full rights of citizenship. on the Environmental Protection them once more, don’t they — and The U.S. military has hundreds of Agency’s list of the nation’s worst American Samoans and Northern foreign military bases throughout the environmental contamination sites. Marianans — deserve full democratic world — an estimated 800 bases in Recently, the military has started a rights? Don’t they deserve the freedom around 80 countries and possessions major buildup on Guam to relocate to choose their relationship with the worldwide. But while bases in foreign troops from Okinawa. The original rest of the country, be it statehood, countries are a major source of U.S. plan proposed seizing almost 1,800 independence or some other political power globally, these bases usually acres of private and protected lands, arrangement that doesn’t perpetuate encounter restrictions from local increasing Guam’s total population the idea that all humans are clearly laws and the possibility of protest or by 50 percent without expanding not created equal under the law? eviction, as happened in Okinawa, civilian infrastructure to handle the Japan, and the Philippines.