The Dawn of America’s Pacific Empire

The Capture of Guam on June 21, 1898

By Anthony Camacho, Esq., University of Guam.

Abstract

America’s capture of Guam on June 21, 1898 during the Spanish- American War was a cross-cultural contact that profoundly influenced four important political developments in the Western Pacific region during and after the war. First, America’s need for a coaling station to project its military forces across the Pacific resulted in the capture of Guam and Spain’s most humiliating territorial loss during the war. Second, Guam was one of the American victories that encouraged the McKinley Administration to alter its foreign policy from nonannexation to the annexation of Spanish Pacific territories occupied by American forces during the war. Third, Juan Marina, the last Spanish Governor of the Marianas Islands, made a token resistance to American military forces by limiting his surrender to Guam and by not surrendering the entire Marianas Archipelago, he began their political division which exists to this day. Fourth, Guam’s capture represents the dawn of America’s Pacific Empire because it was closely followed by the US annexation of Hawaii after the passage of the Newlands Resolution on July 4, 1898, and by the US acquisition of the Philippines after the Spanish surrender of Manila to American military forces on August 13, 1898.