In December 1855 and January 1856, a trio of vessels set sail from the United States to Jarvis and Baker islands, coral atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The ships carried representatives from the newly formed American Guano Company and a guano expert tasked with examining the quality of the islands’ bird poop.
After estimating the quantity of guano available and taking samples, the entourage claimed the islands in the name of the company and the United States. That move marked the country’s first effort to acquire territory overseas.
U.S. ownership of those islands became official in July 1856 with Congress’ passage of the Guano Islands Act. That act gave the country “permission” to claim sovereignty over any allegedly uninhabited or unclaimed territory to secure access to guano, a prized fertilizer for American tobacco, cotton and wheat fields.
Ostensibly the act was meant to provide the United States with a guano supply outside of Peru, home to the most coveted, nitrogen-rich guano in the world. Peru first attracted guano diggers from Britain in the early to mid-1800s, followed shortly after by the United States. At varying points, both countries considered forcibly taking Peru’s Lobos Islands, then home to 30-meter-tall guano heaps.
But the Guano Islands Act gave more than the gift of bird poop, says environmental sociologist Mauricio Betancourt of Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. It enabled the United States to seize some 100 far-flung islands, 10 of which remain in the country’s possession today.
When the guano craze ended decades later as supplies were exhausted, the United States converted those islands into military bases and strategic refueling stops. During the Vietnam War, the country used Johnson Atoll, a small Pacific island acquired through…
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