USA owns more Pacific Islads

Super_Cool

The USA grabbed Hawaii, Guam, 50% of Samoa, and some minor islands (Howland, Baker, Jarvis, Wake, Midway) in the 19th century. They are all still controlled by the USA today.

What other islands could have been grabbed?
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
Pretty much every small speck of land in the Pacific was claimed under the Guano Islands Act. Many of these claims fell dormant relatively quickly, but some endured until very late (often only being repudiated by treaties with the newly independent states in the late 20th Century). I won't bother replicating the full list, but some notable examples:

-The Line Islands (Kiribati): subject to a continual US claim from the late 19th Century to the Treaty of Tarawa in 1979.

-The Phoenix Islands (Kiribati): Claimed in the 1930s for air bases and repudiated at Tarawa

- The Northern Cook Islands: Claimed in the late 19th Century and not repudiated until the 1980 border demarcation

-Tokelau: Claimed at some point in the 19th Century, repudiated in 1980 with the Treaty of Tokehaga.

All of these are good candidates for being bartered by Britain in exchange for something else (abandoning US claims to some Caribbean Islands or getting their favour in a diplomatic situation), or particularly in the case of the Phoenix Islands could be sold to the US as part of the finances for WWII if things went differently.
 
Alamo

Alamo

If the campaign on Nuka Hiva went differently in the War of 1812, America might have wound up with much of eastern and central Polynesia as a de facto protectorates.
 

Herzen's love-child

Depends what you mean by grabbed. The US could have conceivably have held on to islands formally controlled by the Japanese but which were lost during WW2. Including Micronesia. But which, either, in the case of the Ryukos, were eventually returned to Japan or spun off as microstates.

I believe there were a number of Pacific islands with rich guano deposits that were claimed by the multiple countries plus the US. These all conceivably could have been taken by the US.

Mentioned by Alex Richards, already.

If we want to classify Vancouver Island as a Pacific island, that....
 
Julius Vogel

Julius Vogel

Britain, as the 19th century progressed had less ability to bargain away the South Pacific islands anyway, as the Australasian colonies became very interested in them and worried about foreign control. It would be a hard political sell I think.
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
Fairdowner said:
I believe Britain took over Fiji after she promised to pay off Fijis debt. I guess the US could have done so as well.
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Fiji was complicated. The king there claimed to be the recognised ruler of the whole archipelago, but then turned out not to be which delayed the annexation by Britain significantly. I suppose the US could jump in earlier by ignoring that but it was definitely in Britain's Sphere of interest whereas the Line Islands were much more peripheral.
 
Cuāuhtemōc

Cuāuhtemōc

Banned
The Galapagos was negotiated by the Ecuadorian and US governments to be seceded to the United States but nothing came out of it. They came closest during 1908 but Ecuador's president at the time was assassinated.
 
Tallest Skil

Tallest Skil

Banned
The Kiat said:
It's not quite before 1900, but the Ryukyu and Bonin islands could have been kept following WWII.
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I’m telling you what, I’d kill several small, defenseless animals (that were in the process of attacking me) for an American Ryukyu. Particularly a state thereof.
 

Captain Jack

The entirety of the Samoas could have been taken if the hurricane of 1889 is butterflied. Diverging on this tangent it is actually a very interesting incident as up until the hurricane tensions were high between the German and American fleets. Then the hurricane wrecked the entirety of both fleets and only HMS Calliope was able to escape the harbor and ride out the storm.

The Caroline's could have been taken from Spain after the Spanish-American War.

That's my two cents.
 

NothingNow

Banned
Super_Cool said:
The Bonin Islands could have been grabbed in the 1850s. Matthew Perry claimed them for the USA and appointed a colonial governor there.
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Yeah, the problem is however in keeping them, since Congress would have a harder time caring less about them. Particularly given that this is the period where US Foreign policy was almost completely ad-hoc and reactive.

The US was never really interested in overseas claims until the mid 1880s, unless they were serving some very notable direct economic or political purpose, and had very wealthy and motivated backers. (This is actually why the USN ceased to exist as a viable force between 1867 and ~1890.)

So first off, you're going to have to fix the American outlook, or convince southern planters that Copra could be worked in a plantation system, (and be financially viable as such,) at the same time as Guano gets really valuable. IMO You'd want both to happen around 1830-1840 for the 'best' results.
 
Clandango

Clandango

The Bonin Islands indeed should have went to the United States but they were invaded and not returned. I agree for a protectorate of Ryukyu, which some Japanese lords treated as a tributary while claiming to thew Chinese that they were not. Tax reasons or something. The islands were firendly to outsiders, though apparently the Europeans stopping there did not realize they had been outfitted a few times by the locals in the thought that they were lost. It would not have been very good for the indigineous people living on some barren rocks to be required to give food to dozens of ships coming in a year.

As for other islands, we could have them claimed by whalers, who might intermarry with some people. Samsah Bay in China is not an island but it would be nice to have. Depends on the time period and if it needs other islands along the way for a pit stop. We might add a Korean island due to a small war between the US and Korea and their short protectorate status, as well as Sabah since a local American diplomat got an agreement of control over the land before selling it to the British. And of course their is the Bering Sea, which the Americans lay claim to.
 

pa_dutch

The Kingdom of Hawaii had a few potential expansions of its own across the Pacific - For example, they claimed control over Sikaiana in the Solomon Islands and attempted a union with (Western) Samoa, with a few islands of Kiribati requesting to tag along. If Hawaii's claims come to fruit but Hawaii still ends up being colonized by the United States, perhaps the other islands would come along for the ride.
 

thekingsguard

Retain control of the Trust Territory of the Pacific - it could make a nice Micronesian state, and they're currently one of the only nations on the planet that WANTS to be annexed by the USA (at least according to irregular polling)
 

Wendell

pa_dutch said:
The Kingdom of Hawaii had a few potential expansions of its own across the Pacific - For example, they claimed control over Sikaiana in the Solomon Islands and attempted a union with (Western) Samoa, with a few islands of Kiribati requesting to tag along. If Hawaii's claims come to fruit but Hawaii still ends up being colonized by the United States, perhaps the other islands would come along for the ride.
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When did they attempt a union with Samoa?
 

CthulhuFhtagn

Banned
If we're talking about an evil/hyper-imperialist US, then it could have taken all of the islands. I'm talking Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia.

More reasonably, I think the US could have possibly made a state out of the Marianas & Guam, and maybe held on to Okinawa as a territory.
 
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