The only reason America annexed Guam and its Chamorro inhabitants all those years ago was because the U.S. was at war with Spain. When the Spanish-American War broke out in April of 1898, Guam was under Spanish control (as it had been since the 1600s).

The Spanish-American War, 1898

The Capture of Guam was a bloodless engagement between the United States and Spain during the Spanish–American War. The U.S. Navy sent a single cruiser, USS Charleston, to capture the island of Guam, then under Spanish control….Capture of Guam.

Representatives of Spain and the United States signed a peace treaty in Paris on December 10, 1898, which established the independence of Cuba, ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and allowed the victorious power to purchase the Philippines Islands from Spain for $20 million.

As a result of the war, the United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines as territories.

It called on the United States to end martial law and revealed that Filipinos wanted their government to defend religious freedom, protect basic human rights, and guarantee home rule.

One such policy was the introduction of the American system of education, and so pervasive and far-reaching was its impact and influence on the life and culture of the Filipino during and after the colonial period that it is generally regarded as the “greatest contribution” of American colonialism in the Philippines.

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States, thereby beginning the era of American colonization. Following the passage of the Philippine Independence Act in 1934, a Philippine presidential election was held in 1935.

The United States and the Philippines are treaty allies under the Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951. The Philippines is the oldest security ally of the US in Southeast Asia and one of the five treaty allies of the US in the Pacific region.