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://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-CARIBBEAN/MILITARY-BUILDUP/egpbbnzyrpq/
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/magazine/venezuela-empires-colony.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://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099257005212415735
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/puerto-rico-independence-movement
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
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