Which country's territory is Guam?

Anyone familiar with geography knows that the current administrative division of the United States is 50 States, plus 1 District of Columbia. It seems that this is all American land. In fact, in Oceania and America, the United States still has five important overseas territories, including Guam.

However, although Guam has been incorporated into the United States for more than 100 years, it is directly under the jurisdiction of the federal government, and all local residents hold American passports, but it has never become the 1 state of the United States. What's going on here?

Geographically, Guam belongs to Oceania, located in the western Pacific Ocean, at the southernmost tip of the Mariana Islands, about 6,000 kilometers east of Lu Lu badminton in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, with a land area of 549 square kilometers and a population of about166,000, with Agana as its capital.

Guam is a multi-ethnic mixed area, of which Chamorro people account for about 37. 1%, and the rest are mainly Filipinos and immigrants from mainland America. Chamorro and English are widely used, and Catholicism is the main belief.

Guam was originally the home of Chamorro aborigines. It was occupied by Spanish colonialists from 1565 and was not colonized until 1668. 1898 After the Spanish-American War, defeated Spain was forced to cede Guam to the United States, thus ending colonial rule for more than 300 years.

During World War II, Guam was occupied by the Japanese, and 1944 was recaptured by the US military. Today, Guam has become the largest naval and air base of the United States in the western Pacific, and various military facilities account for about 1/3 of the island area.

According to American law, Guam is an "unincorporated territory". Although local residents have obtained American citizenship and the right to elect governors, they can participate in the US presidential primaries and the Democratic Party-Democratic caucuses, but they cannot vote in the presidential election.

Moreover, the people of Guam are not represented in the United States Congress. Although their elected local representatives are resident in the House of Representatives, they can only attend relevant meetings and have no corresponding voting rights.

This unfair treatment makes the people of Guam "second-class citizens", which not only deprives them of many employment opportunities, but also prevents them from enjoying other civil rights. So many people complain that Guam should become the 1 state of the United States. Some people even called for independence, but few people responded.

In fact, the reason why the United States refused to "straighten out" Guam and turn it into a country with 1 can be summarized as follows:

Military considerations

. Guam is the most important strategic air base of the United States overseas and is at the core of the US military base system in the western Pacific. There are about 1.9 million American troops stationed on the island, and the base area accounts for about 1.3 of the whole island.

During the Korean War and the Vietnam War, Guam, as an important strategic base of sea and air, played an important role in assembling troops, transporting ammunition and supporting long-range bombing. After entering the 2 1 century, its military value became even more important.

In view of the extraordinary military value of the Guam base, the United States has always maintained an indifferent or even exclusive attitude on the issue of making Guam a 1 state.

There is no other reason. Once it becomes the 1 state of the United States, Guam's affairs will be decided by the state government itself. If the U.S. government wants to expand the scale of military bases and increase the number of soldiers or equipment, it is bound to negotiate with the state government. Once there is wrangling, it will inevitably affect the implementation of military strategy, which is definitely not what the US government wants.

Consideration of party politics

. According to the US Constitution, each state can get two seats in the Senate and at least 1 seat in the House of Representatives. These senators and representatives have full voting rights. They can introduce bills, make laws and even impeach the president.

Moreover, each state can allocate different numbers of electors according to its population, and the sole duty of electors is to vote for the president.

Although the United States is a multi-party country, the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party are the strongest, and they take turns to govern for a long time. Except for a few people, members of Congress are members of these two major political parties.

In this case,

The establishment of each new country will change the number of members of parliament and electors, thus strengthening or weakening the strength of a political party and affecting the results of the two parties in the general election.

Because they are not sure which party NSW prefers, neither NSW nor the Democratic Party dare to risk supporting the establishment of NSW, and the resistance Guam faces can be imagined.

Worried about "conformity effect"

. In fact, Guam is not the only "unincorporated territory" in the United States. Similarly, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, American Virgin Islands, American Samoa and other regions are all willing to become 1 state of the United States.

Puerto Rico, in particular, has held five referendums since 1973, and strongly hopes to become the 5 1 state of the United States, but all of them have been declined by the US government. Imagine, if the United States "righted" Guam, what other reasons can it take to exclude other regions?

For the above reasons, the United States government has refused to change the status quo, and Guam's dream of becoming a 1 state has become distant. Fortunately, Guam's strong economic development, coupled with a large number of financial subsidies from the United States government, has made the living standards of local people quite high, with a per capita GDP of $35,000.

Therefore, Guam, which fully enjoys the "dividend", is different from Puerto Rico. Although I also want to become the 1 state of the United States, my desire is not very strong, which is in line with the expectations of the US government.