when did the us acquire the us virgin islands
History of the United States Virgin Islands In 1917 a treaty was concluded in which the United States purchased the islands for $25,000,000 (about $390,000,000 in 2010 dollars)[citation needed]. After the United States bought what is now known as the United States Virgin Islands from the Danish, the islands became an unincorporated U.S. territory. Most residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1936, and an act of 1932 provided that all natives of the Virgin Islands who on the date of the act were residing in the continental United States or any of its insular possessions or territories were U.S. citizens. The islands remained under the direct control of the U.S. government until 1968, when residents were first allowed to elect their own Governor (previously, governors had been appointed first by the navy, then by the interior department). In 1972, residents elected their first non-voting delegate to congress.
History of the United States Virgin Islands Early inhabitants of the Virgin Islands included the Ciboney, Arawaks, and Island Caribs. The first documented Europeans to visit the islands arrived with Christopher Columbus. The islands were occupied by several nations over the next century, including England, the Dutch Republic, France, and Denmark.[citation needed] In 1733, the Danish West India Company purchased Saint Croix from the French and brought together Saint Thomas, Saint Croix, and Saint John as the Danish West Indies. Danish trading posts were set up on the islands, trading in sugar, slaves and other goods. Sugar cane cultivation was a major economic activity for many years, with slaves used as one of the labor sources. However, following increasing humanitarian awareness, laws against slavery and a slave rebellion in 1848, the governor Peter von Scholten officially freed the last slaves the same year. The islands were purchased from the Danish by the United States in 1917 under the Treaty of the Danish West Indies.