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This article is about the individual political entities currently or formerly called "United States territories". For the various forms of the jurisdiction of the United States, see United States territory.
Political divisions of the United States as they were from 1868 to 1876, including 9 organized territories and 2 unorganized territories
Territories of the United States are one type of political division of the United States, administered by the U.S. government but not any part of a U.S. state. These territories were created to govern newly acquired land while the borders of the United States were still evolving. Territories can be classified by whether they are incorporated (part of the United States proper) and whether they have an organized government (through an Organic Act passed by the U.S. Congress). The organized incorporated territories of the United States existed from 1789 to 1959, through which 31 territories applied for and won statehood. The U.S. had no unincorporated territories (also called "overseas possessions" or "insular areas") until 1898, but continues to control several of them today.
An incorporated territory of the United States is a specific area under the jurisdiction of the United States, over which the United States Congress has determined that the United States Constitution is to be applied to the territory\'s local government and inhabitants in its entirety (e. g. citizenship, trial by jury), in the same manner as it applies to the local governments and residents of the U.S. states. Incorporated territories are considered an integral part of the United States, as opposed to being merely possessions.Definitions of insular area political organizations, Office of Insular Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior, <http://www.doi.gov/oia/Islandpages/political_types.htm>. Retrieved on 2007-11-14
In contrast, an unincorporated territory is an area under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress has determined that only select parts of the U.S. Constitution apply. Unincorporated territories are essentially colonies, under the supremacy clause, receiving only whatever power offered by the U.S. Congress.Torruella, Juan R. (1985). The Supreme Court and Puerto Rico: The Doctrine of Separate and Unequal. José Trías Monge, Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World (Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0-300-07618-5
Incorporation as it applies to territories is regarded as a permanent condition. Once incorporated, a territory can no longer be de-incorporated; that is, it can never be excluded from the jurisdiction of the United States Constitution (with a few exceptions; some small adjustments to incorporated U.S. territory have been ceded to foreign powers as the result of border settlements (see Rio Rico, Texas). The term "incorporated", in this sense, does not refer to the act of creating a civil government entity (e.g. a city or a town).
An organized territory is a territory for which the United States Congress has enacted an Organic Act to formally set forth its system of government. Such territories can be incorporated or not, but only non-incorporated organized territories have existed since the Territory of Hawaii was admitted as a U.S. state in 1959.
The provisions of an Organic Act typically include the establishment of a Bill of Rights for the territory, as well as the framework of a tripartite government. Such a territory is said to be organized. Historically, an organized territory differed from a state in that although the organic act allowed for limited self-government, a territory had no constitution and ultimate authority over the territory was held not by the territorial government but by the United States Congress. Some contemporary organized territories have constitutions, but such constitutions are distinct from state constitutions in that they do not qualify the territory for becoming a state of the union.
The first organized territory in the United States was the Northwest Territory, organized in 1787 by the passage of the Northwest Ordinance, which is the prototype for subsequent organic acts. In the following century and a half, 29 other territories were organized at one time or another. Historically, the organization of a territory by the passage of an organic act was typically a prelude to statehood. All of these were incorporated territories, meaning that they were fully part of the United States, though that distinction did not arise until the first non-incorporated territories were gained following the Spanish-American War in 1898.
In the current lexicon of the United States political insular areas, a "commonwealth" is considered a special case of an organized territory. At present, there are two—Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. Neither of these, however, is an incorporated territory.
Additionally, Guam and the United States Virgin Islands are organized territories, but they are neither incorporated nor considered commonwealths. On the other hand, American Samoa is formally considered an unorganized territory, though it is self-governing under a 1967 constitution.
Most of the historic territories of the United States, including all the ones that eventually became U.S. states, were incorporated organized territories, that is, incorporated territories for which Congress established a local civil government. The distinction between unincorporated territories and incorporated territories did not arise until the 20th century, following the acquisition by the United States of possessions arising from the Spanish-American War, including the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Previously, the United States had acquired territory only through annexation, with all territories being de facto incorporated territories.
The distinction between incorporated and unincorporated territories was clarified in the 1937 United States Supreme Court case People of Puerto Rico v. Shell Oil Co., in which the Court determined that the Sherman Antitrust Act, which had referred only to "territories," applied to Puerto Rico even though it was not an incorporated territory of the United States. See also: Insular Cases, and Guano Islands Act.
In the contemporary sense, the term "unincorporated territory" refers primarily to insular areas. There is currently only one incorporated territory, Palmyra Atoll, which is not an organized territory. Conversely, a territory can be organized without being an incorporated territory, a contemporary example being Puerto Rico.
See organized incorporated territories of the United States and unincorporated territories of the United States for timelines.
Location of the insular areas: The USA incorporated unorganized Territory unincorporated organized territory Commonwealth status unincorporated unorganized territory
See Organized incorporated territories of the United States for a complete list.
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