Chinese workers on the Great Heap of guano, Chincha Islands, Peru. Alexander Gardner, published 1865. Library of Congress.
Part of the NPS series The American Home Front and World War II.
To understand the American home front in World War II, start in the mid-1800s. In 1940, almost 19 million people — 12.2% of the U.S. population — lived in U.S. jurisdictions outside the states, the places where civilians would feel the war (uninhabited places and military-only bases are left aside here).
The guano islands
- Why guano: in the early 1800s, farmers wanted fast, cheap ways to restore soil. Guano — bird droppings from tropical colonies — fit the bill, and by the 1840s a lucrative global trade had pushed prices up and sent people searching the world for more.
- The Guano Islands Act of 1856 let Americans claim guano islands for the U.S. Almost 100 were claimed; in the Pacific, Baker, Howland and Jarvis Islands and Midway Atoll were still American when the war came. Canton Island, disputed with Britain, became a shared "condominium."
- Midway's cable station: by 1903 the Commercial Pacific Company had a telegraph station on Midway — about 24 staff plus the superintendent's family — linking San Francisco to Manila via Hawaiʻi, Midway and Guam. On July 4, 1903, the first round-the-world cable message passed through it, circling the globe in under 10 minutes; President Theodore Roosevelt opened the line with greetings to Governor Taft and "the people of the Philippines." The station grew gardens in imported soil.
- Colonists: in the 1930s the American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project put three to four residents each on Baker, Howland and Jarvis, and seven Americans on Canton; dozens of Pan American Airways staff lived on Midway and Canton, supporting transpacific flights.
The Commercial Pacific Company cable station on Midway Atoll, about 1915. Digital Archives of Hawaiʻi.
The territories in 1940
| Place | How it became American | People in 1940 |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska | bought from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million (roughly $149 million in 2023), bringing Alaska Natives and others under U.S. rule; a territory in 1912, a state in 1959 | just over 72,500 |
| Hawaiʻi | the kingdom was overthrown in 1893 by foreign landholders backed by U.S. Marines, who deposed and imprisoned Queen Liliʻuokalani; a territory from August 1898, against the wishes of many Native Hawaiians | just over 423,300 |
| Guam | taken from Spain after the Spanish-American War of 1898 | about 22,300 |
| The Philippines | taken from Spain in 1898 | just over 16 million |
| Puerto Rico | taken from Spain in 1898 | just under 1.9 million |
| Wake Island | annexed in 1899 as a possible refueling and communications stop; home to dozens of Pan Am staff from the 1930s | — |
| American Samoa | after Samoan civil wars in the 1880s and 1890s, fueled by the U.S., Britain and Germany, a December 1899 agreement split Samoa: the east to the U.S., the west to Germany (now independent Samoa) | about 12,900 |
| Panama Canal Zone | when Panama broke from Colombia with U.S. help, it granted the canal and 5 miles on each side for $10 million (about $343 million in 2023) plus annual fees; built from 1904, opened August 1914 | just over 51,800 |
| U.S. Virgin Islands | bought from Denmark in 1917, days before the U.S. entered World War I, for $25 million (about $596 million in 2023), for fear enemies would use them against Puerto Rico and the canal | just under 25,000 |
Sources
Based on "The American Home Front Before World War II: The Greater United States," by Megan E. Springate, University of Maryland, for the NPS Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, National Park Service, citing Immerwahr (2016), Cushman (2013), Skaggs (1994), Burns (2016), Lyons (2005), the 1940 Census and others; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source calls the Virgin Islands the "Dutch West Indies"; they were the Danish West Indies. Previous in the series: Introduction. Next: World War I, the Great Depression, and the New Deal.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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