A U.S. territory is a piece of land belonging to the United States that is not a state. The United States has five inhabited territories, but there have been other territories in the past. Whatever happened to them? The short answer is that they have either become states or foreign countries.
States
Many of the current 50 states used to be territories of the United States, but not all of them. The 13 original colonies were never U.S. territories. Some other current states were never territories. Maine, for example, was part of Massachusetts before becoming a state, and West Virginia was part of Virginia. Kentucky was also part of Virginia, but it became part of the Southwest Territory at one time. Vermont and Texas had both declared independence before they became states (though not everyone agreed in either case). California hadn’t gotten around to becoming a territory before statehood.
While there are some differences of opinion, the general consensus today is that 32 of the current 50 states were territories at one time.
Independent nations
Another former U.S. territory, the Philippines, is now an independent nation.
The Philippines, which came into the possession of the United States along with Puerto Rico and Guam after the Spanish American War, was a U.S. territory for nearly 50 years. The relationship got increasingly complicated with the Philippine-American War, a conflict lasting three years with devastating loss of life on both sides. In 1916, the federal government declared its intention to give independence to the Philippines, where the residents had made it clear that they did not want statehood but instead wanted to be an independent nation. The Philippines had been a Spanish colony for 300 years, with extensive efforts to gain independence, and had continued the efforts under U.S. administration as well. The Philippine Autonomy Act made this statement: “[I]t is, as it has always been, the purpose of the people of the United States to withdraw their sovereignty over the Philippine Islands and to recognize their independence as soon as a stable government can be established therein.” The Philippines gained home rule in 1935.
Japan captured and occupied the Philippines for five years during World War II. The United States captured the islands back from Japan in 1945 and conferred independence in 1946.
Filipinos were never citizens of the United States, but they were U.S. nationals, as are the current American Samoans. After independence, people born in the Philippines and living in the United States had to apply for U.S. citizenship or leave the United States. They did not have the option of continuing to live in the states as U.S. nationals.
United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI)
The numerous islands of Micronesia were colonized in succession by Spain, Germany, and then Japan. After the Second World War, these islands became a United Nations trusteeship, administered by the United States, named the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI). At the time, the TTPI consisted of islands that had not yet formed nations. These islands ultimately become the independent countries of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands, plus the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
According to a CIA history, in 1978, the Northern Mariana Islands was granted self-governance separate from the rest of the TTPI, and in 1986, islanders were granted US citizenship, with the territory coming under U.S. sovereignty as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). In 2009, the CNMI became the final US territory to elect a nonvoting delegate to the US Congress.
The three independent countries signed compacts of free association (COFAs) with the United States, beginning in 1986. The COFA agreements recognize the full sovereignty of the new nations, except on matters of defense and national security, on which the countries defer and delegate to the U.S.
