Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
As of today, 2013, no one knows what the political interests of the United States are in respect to its overseas colonies, a.k.a. territories. Guam may still be relevant to national security, as was Puerto Rico during the cold war. With the rise of China, the U.S. might still need a hold on Guam and will not give it independence. However with the rapid pace of technology who needs an old 20th century colonial back water when defense can be arranged via satelites, computers and drones?
The USA should have never eradicated or tried to kill off Spanish. Many Guamanians speak Spanish and have Spanish heritage even.
Guam has such a beautiful culture.
Have you ever been to Guam? They may have Spanish last names, but almost no Guamanians speak Spanish. They speak English. Most indigenous Guamanians also speak some Chamorro, which shares some word roots with Spanish but would be unintelligible to a Spanish speaker and vice versa. The other most common language in Guam is Tagalog.
As for the question of whether Guam would vote for independence, I doubt it. Every once in a while a politician there likes to blame Guam's problems on the US or our military, but without the military spending money on civilian infrastructure and the grants/aid that Guam gets from the US, Guam would turn into a giant Chuuk.
As of today, 2013, no one knows what the political interests of the United States are in respect to its overseas colonies, a.k.a. territories. Guam may still be relevant to national security, as was Puerto Rico during the cold war. With the rise of China, the U.S. might still need a hold on Guam and will not give it independence. However with the rapid pace of technology who needs an old 20th century colonial back water when defense can be arranged via satelites, computers and drones?
And what "colonies" are you talking about? Last I heard, the US had no colonies
Quite the opposite, I find Guam, like Porto Rico, should become in the future a full fledged US state.
I hold nothing in general of the "special status" form of government, be it overseas territory , crown colony (for the British), associated states, etc. This form of government is confusing and as a result it blurrs the difference between sovereignty and dependency, which is intellectually frustrating.
Quite the opposite, I find Guam, like Porto Rico, should become in the future a full fledged US state.
I hold nothing in general of the "special status" form of government, be it overseas territory , crown colony (for the British), associated states, etc. This form of government is confusing and as a result it blurrs the difference between sovereignty and dependency, which is intellectually frustrating.
I also wouldn't mind Guam becoming a state, but the population is just over 1/4 of the least populous state, Wyoming. Even if you merged it with the CNMI, the population would still be just over 1/3 of Wyoming. The only way you would have a reasonable population would be to make the entire former Micronesian Trust Territory a state. The problem with this is that while Palau has some economic activity from tourism/scuba diving, the economy in FSM (outside of a couple of dive resorts on Chuuk and Yap) and the Marshalls (except for the base on Kwajalein) is basically made up of third world subsistence fisherman and remittances from their relatives in the US. These areas would need significant economic development before they could function as a state. Also, I doubt the people in these Compact of Free Association areas would want to have to follow US laws, as this seems to be the biggest complaint about the US Govt in Guam and the CNMI.
IMO the only real options are status quo or statehood. The issue of US citizenship more or less makes separation impossible. Palau, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Philippines never had US citizenship so separation was not an issue for them. Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands are full fledged US territories like Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands ... they are not independent nations with Compacts of Free Association.
Free Association is a disaster (as you stated in your post) - they have zero economic activity beyond the subsides from the US which will end at some point. And then what? What happens to these islands then? Just what does Micronesia plan on doing at that point? We have already said that this is it - the compacts will not be renewed for a third time.
In theory we could annex these islands but will they want to give up their independence? Will we (the US) even want to spend the millions and millions of dollars that would be needed to provide these islands with a functioning infrastructure and somewhat decent economy comparable to other US territories? Micronesia is 16 times poorer than the poorest US territory (American Samoa) and 20 times poorer than Mississippi (the poorest state).
IMO the only real options are status quo or statehood. The issue of US citizenship more or less makes separation impossible. Palau, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Philippines never had US citizenship so separation was not an issue for them. Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands are full fledged US territories like Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands ... they are not independent nations with Compacts of Free Association.
Free Association is a disaster (as you stated in your post) - they have zero economic activity beyond the subsides from the US which will end at some point. And then what? What happens to these islands then? Just what does Micronesia plan on doing at that point? We have already said that this is it - the compacts will not be renewed for a third time.
In theory we could annex these islands but will they want to give up their independence? Will we (the US) even want to spend the millions and millions of dollars that would be needed to provide these islands with a functioning infrastructure and somewhat decent economy comparable to other US territories? Micronesia is 16 times poorer than the poorest US territory (American Samoa) and 20 times poorer than Mississippi (the poorest state).
I think having an expanded EEZ would either balance out the money needed to be poured into there, or being in a surplus. Plus, this is near disputed territory, so something is valuable in this region of the world. It would not hurt to continue to expand our EEZ here. The US was extremely foolish in letting the Philippines go. Unfortunately, that was a time where xenophobia and racism were at highs. If it wasn't for that, I think we would have granted the Filipinos US citizenship, then they would be a territory with us, or a state.
I think having an expanded EEZ would either balance out the money needed to be poured into there, or being in a surplus. Plus, this is near disputed territory, so something is valuable in this region of the world. It would not hurt to continue to expand our EEZ here. The US was extremely foolish in letting the Philippines go. Unfortunately, that was a time where xenophobia and racism were at highs. If it wasn't for that, I think we would have granted the Filipinos US citizenship, then they would be a territory with us, or a state.
Other than fishing (and the area is already over-fished), there's not much that we would gain with having that expanded EEZ in the former trust territory. Unlike the areas in the South and East China seas that China is contesting with Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, these islands are far off of the continental shelf. The water drops off to thousands of feet a few hundred yards off shore. It's so deep, using current technology, it would be difficult to get much of worth from there. Most of the areas around these island range from a depth of 7500 to 15000 feet. Plus, there is no known mineral wealth there. It's a moot point anyways as the people there wouldn't want to give up their sovereignty. They are not interested in following US environmental law.
If you look at Guam, the CNMI, American Samoa, USVI, and even Puerto Rico, they are all an economic drain on the US. Most of them at one point served some strategic function that outweighed the cost. American Samoa served as a coaling station for the navy and the US whaling fleet in the South Pacific. The USVI were purchased to keep the Danes from selling them to Germany for a submarine base during World War One. Puerto Rico had large military installations that are now defunct. The CNMI had a large CIA presence listening in on China. Guam is the only territory that still has a large amount of strategic value that offsets the costs of subsidies.
As for the Philippines, it is significantly more developed than the former trust territory. Still there would be challenges. I think every typhoon that came through Micronesia when I was there went on to strengthen in the Philippine sea and go on to hit the Philippines. While there are many middle class Filipinos, there is also extreme and entrenched poverty. Not to mention, the reason the Philippines is independent is because the Filipinos repeatedly requested independence after losing a war for independence against the United States. The enticement of US citizenship might be attractive enough for today's Filipinos to vote to join the US, but absorbing 100 million new citizens would be difficult for the US. Even back in the 1930's, it would have been like adding another New York and Texas to the US population.
Guam was a Spanish colony for about 4 centuries. They have had more than enough colonialism. They should be granted independence.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
