Northern Mariana Islands cont.
Photo: visittheusa.com
The Mariana Islands became an official U.S. territory shortly after WW II. Things haven’t gotten much easier for its residents. To this day, the Mariana Islands are used as a source for cheap labor. Companies like Levi’s manufacture goods in the Mariana Islands for cheap and can still describe it as “American made.”
Some believe that almost half of the Islands’ population is made up of sweatshop employees. This culture has also lead to such horrors as child prostitution and child labor.
Recent years have seen the U.S. intervene to implement more worker rights. The people of the Mariana Islands are slowly starting to gain freedoms as a result.
American Samoa
Photo: nationsonline.com
American Samoa’s history as a U.S. territory dates back to the 1899 Tripartite Convention. There, it was decided that Germany and the United States would divide the islands into two parts. Germany took the Western islands, and the U.S. took the Eastern islands.
America had relatively little influence on the area until WW II. At that time, the territory became flooded with U.S. Marines battling in the Pacific. Their presence not only had a significant cultural impact on the area, but it resulted in many young Samoans being recruited.