Different end for the Pacific trust territories

early 1970's OTL Northern Mariana Islands votes to join the U.S.

POD the people of Palau, Micronesia, and Marshall islands also decide to become a commonwealth instead of OTL's compact of free association.

any ideas on the effects of this

Possible admission as a state?
The total population for Micronesia, Palau, Marshall islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands is 467,015 according to Wikipedia
 
It was considered

But, to simplify a complicated story, there was just too much nationalist feeling in the other territories. Why would Palauans and Marshallese want to be subject to Washington when they could become independent nations? Especially independent nations whose people (1) get lots of money from Washington, and (2) can freely move to the US and work and reside there.

A secondary factor was that after 1975, everyone sort of stepped back and said, you know? The Northern Marianas really got a sweetheart deal there. Full US citizenship but also heavy subsidies, local control of customs and immigration, non-locals can't own land... hmm. Maybe we shouldn't be so fast next time. (This is why Guam, which has been whining for Commonwealth status for decades now, hasn't gotten it.)

To make this POD work, you'd have to have a very different Trust Territory administration -- one that was actively trying to turn the TTPI citizens into Americans. OTL, that was emphatically not the case. It would have been a violation of the spirit of the UN resolution creating the TTPI in the first place, for one thing. More to the point, the TT administration was dominated by the Navy at first, and later by veterans of the Philippine colonial administration. Neither of these had the slightest interest in turning the locals into Americans.


Doug M.
 
A more likely different ending would be the creation of a "United States of the Pacific" incorporating the entire Trust Territory.

Up until about 1965, this was what the US intended. OTL's breakup was driven by the locals -- primarily by the CNMI's determination not to be forced into federation with the distant, poorer, more populous, and culturally distinct islands of Micronesia. The US resisted this at first, until the Johnson administration belatedly realized it made more sense to cut a bunch of little deals instead of one big one.

Note that the breakup of the TTPI was bitterly resisted by the lower Micronesians, especially the Trukese. As the poorest and most populous island group; they wanted the largest possible federation. OTL they were pretty much ignored... but I can imagine a TL where thing went differently. Again, it would require a different TTPI administration, with a POD back in the 1940s or '50s, but I think it's at least plausible.

Whether such a state would /stay/ together is something else again. I suspect probably not; it might last a decade or two, but by the early 21st century at least one group, and maybe two or three, would have seceded.


Doug M.
 
i agree a pod in the 70's is pretty late, maybe an earlier one in the 1946 after the end of the war

How would the ttpi want to join the U.S. completely willingly(no U.S. goes crazy scenarios)by at least 1994 the date of its OTL's dissolutio
 
Guam is strategically very valuable to the US more then ever. Its the US closest point to Asia.

We can still maintain a strategic forward military presence from Guam and feasibly project our military power deep into Asia to protect America's vital interests in peace and regional stability. We will be near, yet far enough away from Asia to do so.
Now, as of 2008, Guam is being prepared for redeployment of a Marine Corps brigade from Okinawa, additional Air Force units, and regular visits from Navy aircraft carriers as America continues a slow withdrawal from its forward deployment around the Asian region.
US Forces in Guam and Australian are co-operating in training excercises in Australia. Its called Australian-US joint combined Training Centre.
This is one part of that training:
Read this: http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_bombers_to_train_in_Australia

So with Guams importance has a base increasing do not think some would like them to have Commonwealth status since then they might decide to reduce the military bases.
 
So with Guams importance has a base increasing do not think some would like them to have Commonwealth status since then they might decide to reduce the military bases.

I'd doubt that, with all the money that a military base brings in. If Guam's anything like Hawaii, the military is one of the largest parts of their economy.
 
So with Guams importance has a base increasing do not think some would like them to have Commonwealth status since then they might decide to reduce the military bases.

... a Commonwealth of Guam would have exactly zero power over the military bases.

It would be like the state government of New Jersey deciding to "reduce" Fort Dix.



Doug M.
 
I'd doubt that, with all the money that a military base brings in. If Guam's anything like Hawaii, the military is one of the largest parts of their economy.

That's the least of it. Guam is by far the most pro-military of all American states or territories. Compared to Guamanians, Texans are a bunch of hand-wringing liberals, Montanans are whining slackers, and Alabamans are pussies who hate America.

Why? Two reasons. One, for many years the military presence was so big, and Guam was so poor, that every single Guamanian family sent a kid (or two or three) into the military -- disproportionately into the Navy, especially the Marines. (Guam has more Marine Corps vets than states with ten times its population.) That's changed a bit in the last generation as Guam's economy has diversified, but there's still a much broader tradition of service than anywhere in the mainland US.

Two -- and this is the big one -- Guam is the only part of the US that was actually occupied by the Axis, and then rescued by the US military. Every Guamanian family has bloodcurdling stories of how Grandfather, as a boy, watched his entire family get hacked to pieces by the Japanese for suspicion of resistance. And Liberation Day is still an over-the-top holiday that goes on for most of a week, Fourth of July and Mardi Gras combined.

The government of Guam has its squabbles with the bases, naturally enough. But trying to get rid of them... no.


Doug M.
 
That's the least of it. Guam is by far the most pro-military of all American states or territories. Compared to Guamanians, Texans are a bunch of hand-wringing liberals, Montanans are whining slackers, and Alabamans are pussies who hate America.

Why? Two reasons. One, for many years the military presence was so big, and Guam was so poor, that every single Guamanian family sent a kid (or two or three) into the military -- disproportionately into the Navy, especially the Marines. (Guam has more Marine Corps vets than states with ten times its population.) That's changed a bit in the last generation as Guam's economy has diversified, but there's still a much broader tradition of service than anywhere in the mainland US.

Two -- and this is the big one -- Guam is the only part of the US that was actually occupied by the Axis, and then rescued by the US military. Every Guamanian family has bloodcurdling stories of how Grandfather, as a boy, watched his entire family get hacked to pieces by the Japanese for suspicion of resistance. And Liberation Day is still an over-the-top holiday that goes on for most of a week, Fourth of July and Mardi Gras combined.

The government of Guam has its squabbles with the bases, naturally enough. But trying to get rid of them... no.


Doug M.
This leads to an obvious question that probably deserves it's own thread... how can Guam end up a state?

On paper at least, it passes the minimum threshold. If the Trust Territories are incorperated it would have a better shot, but then you have to talk them into it.

HTG
 
I don't see to much past effects, but when we finally get to exploiting the sea floor? Or if sea farming keeps growing?:cool:

Or OTECs?! If power beaming is found to be effective.

Could have significant economic benifits downstream ATL.
 
So what if after WWII the US announces that within a set time frame(15-20 yearsish) the ttpi will was to choose its fate independent nations( with far less of the otl deals) or us territories.

What else would be required to make the ttpi want to be US territory?
 
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