U.S with no Pacific colonies; is it possible?

With a POD stretching back to the 1860's in the U.S and back to 1800 around the world, can there be a chance for the United States to not engage in some Pacific island-grabbing? At least an independent Kingdom of Hawaii with an independent or European-controlled Philippines until the First World War?

For Hawaii, I need to make King Lunalilo live longer and not have the Bayonet Constitution, among other things. That will at least make it last until WWI.

For the Philippines, I'm not so sure. The whole thing got into American hands because of the Spanish-American War, and that's harder to get rid of. Any ideas?
 
By the 1860s, he US is probably going to keep Hawaii and Midway, unless the British declare war on them before the 1870s and take the islands by force. The rest of America's Pacific Empire (Philippines, Guam, etc.) was gained through the Spanish-American War, so just avoid that.
 
By the 1860s, he US is probably going to keep Hawaii and Midway, unless the British declare war on them before the 1870s and take the islands by force. The rest of America's Pacific Empire (Philippines, Guam, etc.) was gained through the Spanish-American War, so just avoid that.

Okay, so no Spanish-American War or at least one where the U.S gets Cuba instead of the Philippines.

I wonder if I can at least delay Hawaii's annexation for a bit until 1900 or so though. If joining the U.S is inevitable, could there at least be a delaying tactic?
 
I guess the easiest solution is just to keep the USA from having a Pacific coastline in the first place, but understandably, that probably falls before the 1860 cut-off (barring a crushing defeat at the hands of the British in some sort of Trent Affair war). Maybe a more isolationist USA will be less willing to embark on colonial adventures in the Pacific?
 
Well if we can have an 1800 POD outside the US, then let's have Mexico get it's act together before losing land to the US.
 
Hawaii didn't become part of the US until 1898.

Indeed, and the islands had certainly been looking elsewhere for alliances before that.

The ironic thing is, that if you want a US with absolutely no Pacific Colonies at all (rather than merely no major ones), 1860's actually 4 years too late. After the 1856 Guano Islands Act US sailors and businessmen went around claiming just about every speck of land in the entire Pacific, the source of stuff like Palmyra and Johnston and so forth. Admittedly US control over a lot of what they claimed was often transient at best, but still it was a significant driver in US expansion in the pacific, if not as flashy.
 
For the Philippines, I'm not so sure. The whole thing got into American hands because of the Spanish-American War, and that's harder to get rid of. Any ideas?

The U.S. could have just granted the Philippines their independence, and thus avoided the bloody war that followed. Alternatively, the war could have simply been fought in the Caribbean, with no Pacific theater at all.
 

TFSmith121

Banned
Hawaii is likely to go with the US; the economic

Hawaii is likely to go with the US; the economic connections with New England were strong as early as the 1820s, because of the whaling industry and then the Protestant missions.

Hawaii was a long way from British or Russian areas of interest at that point; the first time the Hawaiian islands would have made sense for the British as a coaling station/waypoint between New Zealand and British Columbia, for example, was (arguably) the 1850s - at which point, the US is actively engaged in the Western Pacific.

So although the US did not formally annex Hawaii until 1898, of all the major sea powers in the Nineteenth Century, US interests were more firmly entrenched in the islands than anyone else by the middle of the century.

The guano island claims were (mostly) east of the Dateline and north of the Line, so if you're willing to modify the request to allow for those, all that needs to change is Samoa, Guam, and the Phillippines.

Not having an "American" Samoa is simple; have the British and French split the entire archipelago, rather than the historical split, in the 1870s or so...

The PI is tougher, in some ways, but here's one: have the Japanese intervene against the Spanish in 1894-95, basically instead of the Sino-Japanese War - the IJN "liberating" the Filipinos from Spain could have some interesting ramifications. Same war could give Japan Guam and, by extension, all of Micronesia.

That sets up the basic spheres of interest as east and west of the Dateline (Japan and the US) and north and south of the Line (US and UK/France); if all the powers accept such, there's less potential causes of conflict.

Best,
 
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