American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project
The American Equatorial Islands Colonization Project was a plan initiated in 1935 by the United States Department of Commerce to place U.S. citizens on uninhabited Howland, Baker, and Jarvis Islands in the central Pacific Ocean so that weather stations and landing fields could be built for military and commercial use on air routes between Australia and California. Additionally, the U.S. government wanted to claim these remote islands to provide a check on eastern territorial expansion by the Empire of Japan. The colonists, who became known as , were primarily young Native Hawaiian men and other male students recruited from schools in Hawaii. In 1937, the project was expanded to include Canton and Enderbury in the Phoenix Islands. The project ended in early 1942 when the colonists were rescued from the islands at the start of the War in the Pacific. History The United States first began establishing its presence in the Equatorial Pacific during the mid-19th century through guano mining conducted by private American companies under the Guano Islands Act. After several decades, guano resources became depleted, leading to the diminishing presence of American companies on the islands; they were thus vulnerable to development and claim by other nations, especially