Patchwork Empire: Citizenship and Expansion in the 20th Century

Patchwork Empire: Citizenship and American Expansion in the 20th Century explores citizenship polices in the U.S. territories and argues that granting (and at times withholding) citizenship to territorial populations has been central to empire building and the development of racial hierarchy in the U.S. Contrary to popular narratives of imperial power, I attribute territorial expansion and governance not only to military might, but also to legal and administrative innovation. Using archival materials, including congressional documents and records from the Bureau of Insular Affairs, I demonstrate that the U.S. strategically granted collective citizenship in order to strengthen its colonial rule. In Guam and Puerto Rico, the U.S. granted citizenship when two conditions converged: when Congress determined that the islands were strategically valuable to the U.S.; and when grassroots political movements weakened colonial control, for example, in the form of an independence movement. When these populations pulled away, Congress enveloped them in a bear hug that granted citizenship to weaken their movement. In contrast, the absence of a determination of strategic value and independence movement in American Samoa sheds light on why the territory has never been granted U.S. citizenship. While citizenship was an attractive solution to many of the problems that colonial officials faced, there were strong objections within the U.S. to granting citizenship to populations considered to be non-white. As a result, Congress created a workaround, by disentangling citizenship from the rights and privileges that typically accompany it and from statehood. This form of citizenship became a durable institution and a reshaped legal category. Though citizenship is often associated with democracy and equality, American officials turned citizenship into a mechanism of control for the empire they were building. This work uncovers strategies of American expansion and colonial governance and confronts deeply held notions of American citizenship and political community