>The US has never "colonized" another country. We have never shipped civilians to another country to take it over. Never.
The Guano Islands Act (11 Stat. 119, enacted August 18, 1856, codified at 48 U.S.C. ch. 8 §§ 1411-1419) is a United States federal law passed by the U.S. Congress that enables citizens of the United States to take possession, in the name of the United States, of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. The islands can be located anywhere, so long as they are not occupied and not within the jurisdiction of another government. It also empowers the President of the United States to use the military to protect such interests and establishes the criminal jurisdiction of the United States in these territories.
More than 100 islands have been claimed for the United States under the Guano Islands Act, but most claims have been withdrawn.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.
As of 2022, the islands still claimed by the United States under the Act are:
Baker Island[8]
Howland Island[8]
Jarvis Island[8]
Johnston Atoll[8]
Kingman Reef/Danger Rock[8]
Midway Atoll[9]
Navassa Island[8] (claimed by Haiti)
Bajo Nuevo Bank[8] (disputed with Colombia)
Serranilla Bank[8] (disputed with Colombia)
Swains Island (part of American Samoa; no evidence that guano was mined)[10]