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The Bureau of Insular Affairs was a division of the United States Department of War that oversaw civil aspects of the administration of several territories from 1898 until 1939.
The bureau was created 13 December 1898 as the Division of Customs and Insular Affairs within the Office of the Secretary of War. [1] This followed the Spanish–American War, which resulted in the transfer of several areas from Spain to the United States, including the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The bureau supervised the customs and civil affairs of these areas. The word "insular" was already associated with Cuba and Puerto Rico because Spain had created autonomous "insular" governments for both islands in February 1898.
In 1900, the name was changed to Division of Insular Affairs. In 1902, it became the Bureau of Insular Affairs. [2] As a result of the Insular Cases, the U.S. Attorney General issued an opinion in 1915 stating that the insular areas were unincorporated territories of the United States. In 1939, the bureau was replaced by the Division of Territories and Island Possessions in the Department of the Interior. [1] This division was later renamed the Office of Insular Affairs.
From 1898–1900 and again in 1909–1934, the bureau was responsible for the administration of Puerto Rico, called "Porto Rico" in official U.S. government documents until 1932. Puerto Rico, also an unincorporated territory of the United States, was administered under a civil government created by the Foraker Act of 1900, amended by the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917. In 1934, the bureau's functions for Puerto Rico were transferred to the Division of Territories and Island Possessions (later the Office of Territories and still later the Office of Territorial Affairs) within the Department of the Interior.
The bureau's other responsibilities included oversight of Cuba, although those responsibilities were not clearly defined. From 1906–1909, it administered the sovereign Republic of Cuba during the Second Occupation of Cuba. In 1904–1905, it briefly had oversight of the Panama Canal. From 1905–1939, it administered the Dominican customs receivership. In 1920–1924, it administered the Haitian customs receivership.
However, the bureau was never responsible for Hawaii, which was administered pursuant to the Hawaiian Organic Act that gave it the status of an incorporated territory. American Samoa, Guam, and the United States Virgin Islands were all administered during these years by the United States Navy Department.
The bureau was responsible for civil aspects of the Philippine government from 1898–1935. The United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands was replaced by the Insular Government following the Spooner Amendment of 1901.
Befitting its organization within the War Department, the chief of the bureau was always an army general. The longest-tenured chiefs were Brig. Gen. Clarence R. Edwards, who served from 1902–1912, and Maj. Gen. Frank McIntyre, who served from 1912–1929. Future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter served briefly as a law officer for the bureau beginning in 1911.
The Spanish–American War began in the aftermath of the internal explosion of USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, leading to United States intervention in the Cuban War of Independence. The war led to the United States emerging predominant in the Caribbean region, and resulted in U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. It also led to United States involvement in the Philippine Revolution and later to the Philippine–American War.
The Treaty of Peace between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain, commonly known as the Treaty of Paris of 1898, was signed by Spain and the United States on December 10, 1898, that ended the Spanish–American War. Under it, Spain relinquished all claim of sovereignty over and title to territories described there as the island of Porto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones, the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and comprehending the islands lying within the following line:, to the United States. The cession of the Philippines involved a compensation of $20 million from the United States to Spain.
A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state and remains politically outside the controlling state's integral area. As such, a dependent territory includes a range of non-integrated not fully to non-independent territory types, from associated states to non-self-governing territories.
In the United States, a territory is any extent of region under the sovereign jurisdiction of the federal government of the United States, including all waters. The United States asserts sovereign rights for exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing its territory. This extent of territory is all the area belonging to, and under the dominion of, the United States federal government for administrative and other purposes. The United States total territory includes a subset of political divisions.
The governor-general of the Philippines was the title of the government executive during the colonial period of the Philippines, governed by Mexico City and Madrid (1565–1898) and the United States (1898–1946), and briefly by Great Britain (1762–1764) and Japan (1942–1945). They were also the representative of the executive of the ruling power.
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of a U.S. state or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Swan Islands, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, as well as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and each federally recognized Native American tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation." Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by the Congress. American territories are under American sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the United States proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the United States, and the Constitution of the United States applies only partially in those territories.
The Insular Cases are a series of opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1901 about the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish–American War. Some scholars also include cases regarding territorial status decided up until 1914, and others include related cases as late as 1979. The term "insular" signifies that the territories were islands administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs. Today, the categorizations and implications put forth by the Insular Cases still govern the United States' territories.
Commonwealth is a term used by two unincorporated territories of the United States in their full official names, which are the Northern Mariana Islands, whose full name is Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico, which is named Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in English and Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico in Spanish, translating to "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico." The term was also used by the Philippines during most of its period under U.S. sovereignty, when it was officially called the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
The Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) is a unit of the United States Department of the Interior that oversees federal administration of several United States insular areas. It is the successor to the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department, which administered certain territories from 1902 to 1939, and the Office of Territorial Affairs in the Interior Department, which was responsible for certain territories from the 1930s to the 1990s. The word "insular" comes from the Latin word insula ("island").
Santiago Iglesias Pantín, was a Spanish-born Puerto Rican socialist and trade union activist. Iglesias is best remembered as a leading supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico, and as the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico in the U.S. Congress from 1933 to 1939.
Charles Edward Magoon was an American lawyer, judge, diplomat, and administrator who is best remembered as a governor of the Panama Canal Zone; he also served as Minister to Panama at the same time. He was Provisional Governor of Cuba during the American occupation of Cuba from 1906 to 1909.
The history of the Philippines from 1898 to 1946 is known as the American colonial period, and began with the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April 1898, when the Philippines was still a colony of the Spanish East Indies, and concluded when the United States formally recognized the independence of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946.
The United States House Committee on Insular Affairs is a defunct committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Taft Commission, also known as the Second Philippine Commission, was established by United States President William McKinley on March 16, 1900, following the recommendations of the First Philippine Commission, using presidential war powers while the U.S. was engaged in the Philippine–American War.
The Military Information Division (MID) was the first military intelligence branch of the United States Army and the United States Department of War, operating from 1885 to 1903.
The Insular Government of the Philippine Islands was an unincorporated territory of the United States that was established in 1902 and was reorganized in 1935 in preparation for later independence. The Insular Government was preceded by the United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands and was followed by the Commonwealth of the Philippines.
The United States Military Government of the Philippine Islands was a military government in the Philippines established by the United States on August 14, 1898, a day after the capture of Manila, with General Wesley Merritt acting as military governor. During military rule (1898–1902), the U.S. military commander governed the Philippines under the authority of the U.S. president as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces. After the appointment of a civil Governor-General, the procedure developed that as parts of the country were pacified and placed firmly under American control, responsibility for the area would be passed to the civilian.
The United States Military Government of Porto Rico, was a provisional military government in Puerto Rico that was established during the Spanish–American War in 1898.
