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It Could Happen Here · Today · 49 min

How the United States Built its Colonial Empire, Pt. 2

Journalist Carlos Berríos Polanco talks with James about how the United States acquired its inhabited overseas colonies, why the constitution doesn't fully apply there, and what it means as Trump says he wants to add new territories or states. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of U.S. Culture by Amy Kaplan https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/182/244/ https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/182/1/ https://theconversation.com/why-russia-gave-up-alaska-americas-gateway-to-the-arctic-74675?xid=PS_smithsonian https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-CARIBBEAN/MILITARY-BUILDUP/egpbbnzyrpq/ https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/magazine/venezuela-empires-colony.html https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-us-state-trump-rodriguez-chavismo-silence-634203c885803b018ecd8ac012bb249d https://time.com/article/2026/06/02/trump-annex-canada-51st-state-rhetoric-carney-us-partnership-message/ https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/28/nyregion/new-light-on-old-fbi-fight-decades-of-surveillance-of-puerto-rican-groups.html https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/1685.html https://theconversation.com/us-territories-have-a-voice-in-congress-but-no-vote-heres-why-283547 https://www.nminewsservice.com/cnmi-covenant-united-states-50th-anniversary-explainer-timeline/ https://apnews.com/article/american-samoa-voting-citizenship-alaska-trump-eda6c32ce0fcdca6edb22efac26e403d https://elecciones2024.ceepur.org/Escrutinio_General_123/index.html#es/default/PLEBISCITO_Resumen.xml https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099257005212415735 https://www.doi.gov/oia/compacts-of-free-association https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/puerto-rico-independence-movement https://time.com/7024574/puerto-rico-status-vote/ https://www.uog.edu/_resources/files/schools-and-colleges/college-of-liberal-arts-and-social-sciences/droessler_whose-pacific.pdf https://juntasupervision.pr.gov/abril-y-mayo-2025/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/21/trump-strait-of-hormuz-american-territory https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/20/politics/trump-iran-war-strait-of-hormuz https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:School_Begins_(Puck_Magazine_1-25-1899).jpg Las carpetas: persecución política y derechos civiles en Puerto Rico by Ramón Bosque Pérez y Javier Colón Morera Soldiers of the Nation: Military Service and Modern Puerto Rico, 1868-1952 by Harry Franqui-Rivera See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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show notes

Journalist Carlos Berríos Polanco talks with James about how the United States acquired its inhabited overseas colonies, why the constitution doesn't fully apply there, and what it means as Trump says he wants to add new territories or states. 

 

  • Las carpetas: persecución política y derechos civiles en Puerto Rico by Ramón Bosque Pérez y Javier Colón Morera

  • Soldiers of the Nation: Military Service and Modern Puerto Rico, 1868-1952 by Harry Franqui-Rivera

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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