Explanation: In the late 19th and early 20th century, the US ‘acquired’ several large overseas territories, including Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. A number of smaller territorial concessions with military strategic value were also acquired. Rather than admitting to having forged AN EMPIRE in the vein of the European powers, continual debate and controversy in the USA (whose electorate traditionally cannot tell one region of the world from another, and usually doesn’t care to) left them as ‘unincorporated territories’. Largely, they were economically exploited like colonial concessions, but their exact legal status was hazy.

We aren’t saying you’re part of an overseas colonial empire! But we’re not NOT saying it either! 🥸