American Oddballs of the Pacific: The Guano Islands and the Origins of the United States Maritime Empire

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Mark Ortiz

Abstract or Description

The passage of the Guano Islands Act in 1856 marked the official beginning of United States overseas territorial annexation. The act permitted U.S. citizens and businesses to possess guano-rich unoccupied islands and to make them appurtenances of the United States. The guano rush of the nineteenth century reveals that American private enterprise obtained assistance from the federal government in advancing its interests while federal officials encouraged commercial incentives to further national policy. Study of the guano trade tells of how involved the federal government was in the nation's agricultural and mercantile ambitions to acquire massive avian fertilizer deposits. In this nexus there was little evidence of laissez-faire. Instead, the story reveals the myth of laissez-faire in nineteenth century America as the U.S. government pursued an activist public policy that benefitted American enterprise. The Guano Islands Act provided legal and maritime protection for American entrepreneurs mining guano -- desiccated seafowl excreta (the white gold of seabirds). The foremost Pacific Islands claimed under the Act include Baker, Howland, Jarvis, Kingman, Johnston, Palmyra, and Midway. The "guano mania" of the mid-nineteenth century led to a guano rush in the Pacific. This development in turn led to the precedent of U.S. claimed maritime sovereignty over insular areas. As such it was the founding act of the United States' seaborne imperialist endeavor. United States overseas acquisitions began with guano islands claims. The 1856 law made it legal to seize islands if they had lots of bird poop. The Pacific Remote Areas (PRIA) is an endorsement of American expansion that is overlooked in nineteenth century American history because it was maritime across the Pacific rather than overland across the continent.