| Shorttitle: | Guano Islands Act of 1856 |
| Longtitle: | An Act to authorize Protection to be given to Citizens of the United States who may discover Deposits of Guano |
| Signeddate: | August 18, 1856 |
| Enacted By: | 34th |
| Effective Date: | August 18, 1856 |
| Leghisturl: | https://www.congress.gov/bill/34th-congress/senate-bill/339/all-info |
| Introducedin: | Senate |
| Introducedbill: | S. 339 |
| Introducedby: | William H. Seward (R–NY) |
| Introduceddate: | May 26, 1856 |
| Committees: | Foreign Relations |
| Passedbody1: | Senate |
| Passeddate1: | July 24, 1856[1] |
| Passedbody2: | House |
| Passeddate2: | August 16, 1856[2] |
| Signedpresident: | Franklin Pierce |
The Guano Islands Act (enacted August 18, 1856, codified at §§ 1411-1419) is a United States federal law passed by the Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits in the name of the United States. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied by citizens of another country and not within the jurisdiction of another government. It also empowers the president to use the military to protect such interests and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States in these territories.
In the 1840s, guano became a prized agricultural fertilizer and source of saltpeter for gunpowder.
The U.S. began importing it in 1843 through New York. By the early 1850s, the U.K. imported over 200,000 tons a year, and U.S. imports totaled about 760,000 tons.[3] The "guano mania" of the 1850s led to high prices in an oligopolistic market, government attempts to control prices, fear of resource exhaustion, and eventually the enactment of the Guano Islands Act of 1856 in August 1856.[4] The Act authorizes U.S. citizens to take possession of unclaimed islands containing guano for the U.S., empowered the President to protect such claims with military intervention, and established jurisdiction of criminal offenses under the laws of the United States within the territories thus claimed. This encouraged American entrepreneurs to search and exploit new deposits on tiny islands and reefs in the Caribbean and in the Pacific.
This was the beginning of the concept of insular areas in U.S. territories. Up to this time, any territory acquired by the U.S. was considered to have become an integral part of the country unless changed by treaty and eventually to have the opportunity to become a state of the Union. With insular areas, land could be held by the federal government without the prospect of its ever becoming a state in the Union.
Under the act the US gained control of around 94 islands. By 1903, 66 of these islands were recognized as territories of the US.[5]
Section 6 provides that criminal acts on or adjacent to these territories "shall be deemed committed on the high seas, on board a merchant ship or vessel belonging to the United States; and shall be punished according to the laws of the United States relating to such ships or vessels and offenses on the high seas".[6] The provision was considered and ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Jones v. United States, .
The Act continues to be part of the law of the United States. The most recent Guano Islands Act claim was made in 1997 to Navassa Island. However, the claim was denied because an American court ruled the island was already under American jurisdiction (a claim Haiti disputes).[7] [8]
While more than 100 islands have been claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act, all but 10 have been withdrawn. The Act specifically allows the islands to be considered possessions of the U.S. The Act does not specify what the status of the territory is after it is abandoned by private U.S. interests or the guano is exhausted, creating neither obligation to nor prohibition of retaining possession.
, the islands still claimed by the United States under the Act are:
A few islands claimed by the United States under the Guano Act of 1856 are disputed.