Why aren’t “territories” of countries that are far removed from the mainland referred to as colonies anymore? What distinguishes a territory from a colony?
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Colonies require colonists
Most modern “territories” were not colonized by the current owners if they were colonized at all. They’re not associated with the bigger country because people from that country came over, set up shop, and both support and rely on their main country
Some modern territories used to be colonies but they gained independence as the empires fell apart but their new government decided to make a treaty to stick with their bigger country because they still needed someone to help enforce their sovereignty. This is the case with many of the small islands in the Caribbean
Other territories were acquired through conquest. No American colonists settled on Puerto Rico, Guam, or the Mariana Islands. These, along with the Philippines and Cuba were acquired from Spain during the Spanish American War. They were never colonies of the US, they were colonies of Spain which means they must be territories of the US unless the US goes and recolonizes them(generally a bloody affair).
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