1504-00-00: (Navassa Island, a Small Uninhabited Island Off Haiti’s Southwest Coast Claimed by the United States in 1857 Under the Guano Islands Act, Dispute…

1504-00-00: (Navassa Island, a Small Uninhabited Island Off Haiti’s Southwest Coast Claimed by the United States in 1857 Under the Guano Islands Act, Disputed by Haiti Since 1804, Now a U.S. National Wildlife Refuge): Navassa is a small, uninhabited island lying off the southwestern coast of Haiti, a speck of land. Its history illustrates that imperial powers do not treat small territories as places with political context. They treat them as property to be claimed. A group under Columbus’s command encountered the island in 1504 and deemed it uninhabitable. In 1857, Captain Peter Duncan of Baltimore claimed it for the United States under the Guano Islands Act of 1856, which authorized American citizens to seize unoccupied islands containing guano deposits. Mining ceased in 1898, but the U.S. retained possession. Haiti has claimed the island since its independence in 1804, a claim the United States has never recognized. In 1999, the U.S. declared Navassa a National Wildlife Refuge, effectively converting a territorial dispute into a conservation designation.