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The United States claimed possession of the Falkland Islands (off the coast of southern Argentina in the South Atlantic Ocean) from 1831 until 1832, and it obtained several islands under the Guano Act of 1856, which encouraged U.S. citizens to take possession of uninhabited islands that have deposits of guano (bat poop). However, the first to be called a territory was the Territory of Hawai'i, which the United States annexed on July 7, 1898, about five years after the overthrow of Hawai'i's monarchy and about one month before the U.S. obtained the Philippines as one of the spoils of the Spanish-American War.

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12y ago

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