I wondered about this during a stay in Manila. In the late 19th century, the U.S. acquired several dependencies overseas which were later turned into territories and even later full-fledged states. Hawaii and Alaska come to mind; others remained incorporated as territories, like the Virgin Islands, Guam, or Puerto Rico (which could become the next state in the not too distant future). It seems as if the United States have found a functionable way of integrating newly acquired dependencies into their political system, even in spite of cultural discrepancies. Yet this apparently didn’t work out for the Philippines - they were granted autonomy in 1935 and independence in 1946, shortly after a bloody reconquest from Japan. Why was America so anxious to get rid of these islands? Have there ever been serious plans to admit them into the union?
<nitpick>Alaska isn’t “overseas”.
This should answer some of your questions, The Philippine-American War.
CMC fnord!
To summarize the situation explained in detail in crowmanyclouds’ link, the Philippines already had a serious independence movement underway when the US took it over from Spain in 1898. The rebels felt rather justifiably betrayed when the US decided to make the Philippines a colony of its own rather than grant it independence. With that background, integrating the Philippines as a state would have been very difficult.
Contrast the situation in Cuba, which is what actually prompted the Spanish-American War. There the US took the sides of the rebels in their war of independence from Spain, and gave Cuba independence in short order after the end of the war.
In any case the only two territories to become states that could be considered overseas in any sense – Alaska and Hawaii – didn’t become states until 1959, many years after the Philippines became independent.
Ed
Another factor is that the Philippines never saw any significant settlement of Americans from the mainland - it essentially kept its pre-colonial culture and didn’t assilimate into American culture. A similar cultural independance is probably one factor that has prevented Puerto Rican statehood.
I suspect that early post WWII USA was a bit apprehensive of looking like another ‘Empire’.
They were afraid we were becoming an empire at the time,
CMC fnord!
If Alaska could be considered overseas in some sense in 1959 why couldn’t California be considered overseas in 1850? Or even Louisiana in 1812? Neither was contiguous with an existing state when admitted.
Same continent, similar and friendly populations.
The USA could probably absorb Mexico without triggering the ‘empire’ problem, to be honest the USA could probably expand throughout all of South America without a real ‘political’ problem, but the economic and demographic problems would be a nightmare.
So forget Alaska, which is besides the point anyway. The word “overseas” is a red herring. Consider only Hawaii. The point is that not until the late 1950s would such a far-off territory have been considered for statehood, and by then the Philippines was no longer a territory.
Ed
Any reason why you left out Guam? Though not a state, but a non-self governing U.S. territory. Any chances of Guam ever being made the 51st state?
Given its size, it’s rather unlikely for the present. The population is only 170,000 or so, or only about a third of Wyoming, the least populous state.
How big is Guam compared to some of the smaller North Eastern coast states?
Significantly smaller. Population is about a quarter that of Vermont. Area is about 3x the District of Columbia, and 13% that of Rhode Island.
Hmm… Yeah, I don’t see it becoming a state. Besides 50 is a nice round number.
Other places that would be contenders for statehood (but probably won’t become states) via CIA World Factbook
United States Dependent Areas:
American Samoa, Baker Island, Guam, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Islands, Navassa Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Palmyra Atoll, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Wake Island
More info, appropriately enough on InfoPlease for each of these territories.
As I remember, there was a scheme by local seperatists after WWII to try and invite the U.S. to annex Sicily, but I don’t think that ever got very far.