When was guam acquired

House of Representatives. Residents do not pay U. Its natives are U. The U. While already taking up 30 percent of the island, the American military has been seeking to increase its presence by relocating to Guam thousands of Marines who are currently based in Okinawa, Japan. Protecting the island is the U. According to the U. Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs, the United States has employed three methods of territorial acquisition for acquiring island territories: [3].

Three other methods for acquisition of island territories are recognized under public international law, according to the Department of the Interior, are: [3].

The table contains seven purchased territories, 10 ceded territories, and 10 territories obtained through occupation. In the United States, treaties regarding the exchange of territory with sovereign nations are typically initiated by the president and subject to the advice and consent of two-thirds of the U. Once the United States legally acquires territories, Article IV, Section 3, of the Constitution grants Congress the authority to manage them, stating:.

In addition to the 50 states, the United States contains unincorporated organized territories which are governed by and subject to parts of the U. Constitution but do not have state status. Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands are considered commonwealths and have their own constitutions. The "Deed of Cession" was signed on April 17, The capital is Pago Pago. Samoan is the primary language, but English, Tongan, and other Pacific islander languages are also spoken. Individuals born in American Samoa are United States nationals, rather than citizens.

Residents of American Samoa cannot vote in federal elections, but they do elect a nonvoting delegate to the U. House of Representatives. Guam is located in the Pacific Ocean region known as Micronesia. English is the primary language of the island, but Filipino, Chamorro, other Pacific islander languages, and other Asian languages are also spoken.

Individuals born in Guam are considered citizens of the United States. Residents of Guam cannot vote in federal elections, but they do elect a delegate to the U. House of Representatives , who serves for a term of two years and has limited voting abilities. Residents of Guam also caucus for presidential primary candidates and delegates from Guam are sent to the Republican and Democratic national conventions. It consists of fifteen islands. Subsequently, the Immigration and Nationality Act of granted U.

However, they do have representation in Congress. The U. It found a valuable port in Apra Harbor, which offered protected anchorage for military ships. Because of its location on the other side of the International Date Line, the residents of Guam are ahead of residents of Hawaii and the mainland, time-wise.

With this brief history of Guam under your belt, you have a better understanding of how Guam came to be a U. Just get in touch with us to learn more. View Larger Image. Tell us about your move! By land, air or sea, The DeWitt Companies make it easy.

That all changed when an aggressive Jesuit missionary, Father San Vitores , arrived in the Marianas in Relations were tense with occasional violence. His death was the turning point that transformed this hitherto-ignored Spanish outpost into a subjugated Spanish colony. Twenty-six years of Spanish - Chamorro wars ensued that, along with introduced diseases, decimated the population. By , just 5, Chamorros — some 10 percent of their former number—remained.

The Spanish then began transporting Chamorros from the northern islands to Guam, where they could control them—a process that took nearly a century, as the fast native canoes could outrun the larger and slower Spanish ships and elude capture. Canoe culture was then banned to keep them from escaping. Once on Guam, the Chamorros were resettled into newly created villages , each under the watchful eye of a Spanish priest.

And so began the assimilation of the Chamorros. They lost their millennia-old connections to the land, their traditions and their stories. Today, the Chamorro language retains its traditional grammar, but 55 percent of the vocabulary borrows from Spanish.

Nonetheless, indigenous culture continued in other ways—in values , in traditions surrounding weddings and funerals , in housing styles , and many other forms not obvious to the outsider. Small-island living requires a system of codes and practices, evolved over millennia, which no outside culture can replace, even today. The Spanish maintained a lazy rule over the islands for the next century and a half.

The northern islands were off limits, until typhoon-devastated Caroline Islanders arrived from the south—as was their traditional practice—looking for temporary shelter around The Spanish governor settled them on Saipan, where they still live alongside of—if not intermarried with—Chamorros who were allowed to return there in the midth century.

The Spanish troops and officials stationed in Guam were at first glad to have visitors when the USS Charleston arrived.