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What was the last part of the United States to be invaded and occupied by enemy forces, and who was that enemy?
Question
#75073. Asked by Baloo55th. (Jan 27 07 11:37 AM)
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queproblema
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I'm sure this isn't what you have in mind, but I can't resist.
The Sioux nation took and held Wounded Knee, S.D. for 71 days in Feb., 1973.
My Lakota friends would certainly agree with me. The incident made a deep impression on my teenaged mind at the time, and that was before I personally knew any Sioux.
 http://www.usmarshals.gov/history/wounded-knee/index.html
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What-A-Mess
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As "The United States", NEVER has an enemy invaded our shores and occupied our lands. There has been territories that were occupied prior to their State Hood and Nationalization.
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crotalus77
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I believe one of the Aleutian islands was occupied by the Japanese for a time ,but we were not aware of it until after they had already left.
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Baloo55th
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Que, I forgot about Wounded Knee, but I was really looking for an external invasion. And What-a-Mess, I was under the impression that the United States of America included territories and such - otherwise you have a capital that isn't part of your country! (Which I think would be unique.) (And who burned the WHite House? British invaders from Canada...) Crotalus is partly right. Three islands (Attu, Agattu and Kiska) were occupied in 1942 by the Japanese, and were retaken by the 7th Infantry Division. Here's some of the evidence: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/TwHP/wwwlps/lessons/7attu/7attu.htm
The islands had a strategic importance for the US, but the Japanese invasion was more of a diversion so far as they were concerned.
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queproblema
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In all seriousness, I would say the Japanese invasion of Alaska would be the right answer.
The Canadians/British only pillaged Washington; they didn't truly occupy it.
I'd thought of the Mexican War, but we were the invaders in that one, by my lights. The boundary was too vague to be certain, though. Remember, "American blood shed on American soil!" Supposedly.
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queproblema
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Historians disagree on this, of course, but I say the US wasn't a nation, at least not the nation we are today, until after 1789 when the first government under our Constitution began to function. Certainly we couldn't count an occupation during the Revolution--we were the upstarts.
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What-A-Mess
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Was not yet United States during the Revolution. The Revolution was the action for the separation that allowed the formation of the United States Nation. (lots of tion's).
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Baloo55th
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The Revolution was still going in 1812?
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queproblema
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The American Revolution is still going on, didn't you know? :-) It officially ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1783, though Cornwallis had surrendered a year and a half earlier. Jefferson urged us to stage one every 25 yrs. or so, though.
http://www.patriotresource.com/events/treaty.html
Star_gazer suggested a British occupation during the Revolution. I'm saying that doesn't count. Oddly enough, the War of 1812 was going on in 1812 (and for the next couple of years).
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lanfranco
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Certainly not. However, the British were certainly raiding and invading, and I think I might term the blockading of ports a form of occupation.
The Canadians, naturally, see that war entirely entirely differently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812
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BungeeAZ
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Currently, people are illegally crossing the border and occupying space in the United States. They are enemies to our economy by using our resources and not paying into our system because they do not receive money from whatever employment that they receive in a legal manner.
On September 11, 2001, the United States was invaded and attacked by enemy forces from the extremist Muslim Group Al Queda by hijacking airplanes and using them as weapons of mass destruction and flying them into iconic buildings (namely the World Trade Center and the Pentagon). heroes thwarted the 4th hijacking attempt and drove the plane into the ground in a field in Pennsylvania.
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star_gazer
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On July 4, 1776 the US declares itself independent from the the British Crown, any foreign army to be on our territory after this date is considered to be an enemy invasion and occupation including the Battle of Gettysburgh during the Civil War.
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zbeckabee
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The United States has never been significantly invaded or occupied by a foreign power since the War of Independence 220 plus years ago.
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queproblema
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How can we say the British were invading us when in fact we were British colonies? We were rebels and revolutionaries; they were not invaders. Just because we defiantly (or, from the founders' point of view, at long last after failed peace overtures) declared our independence doesn't make them invaders. We were the ones breaking the law, the legal ties that bound. In the Civil War, that was exactly the position Lincoln took towards the South. We were indeed mutual enemies, but we were usurping their rightful if abusive government just as surely as Cromwell did King Charles'. We dared to assert that we had a right to rebel simply because we believed it was ours, setting a new and fearful precedent, never again followed with our measure of success. What could be more audacious than,
". . . whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. "
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm
Zbeck is this far correct: "The United States has never been significantly invaded or occupied by a foreign power."
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Arpeggionist
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The British did send invading forces into the US during the War of 1812. The Sioux set up a base in Wounded Knee in 1973. While Al Qaeda attacked American establishments in September of 2001, the enemies of the US involved had not invaded that day - that is, they did not enter the US illegally, and they did not set up a base of operations in the territory they attacked. It was strictly a suicide mission, not an invasion.
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BungeeAZ
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The Memebers of Al Queda that killed 3000 Americans were, in fact in the United States on expired visas, hence, they were here illegally. And, they were acting consciously to kill Americans. They were enemy forces.
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queproblema
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I need to back down on a point. I said the Canadian/British forces only pillaged Washington during the War of 1812 but did not occupy it. Wikipedia says they did, briefly:
"The occupation of Washington lasted about 26 hours,..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Washington
Still, that must be taken in the context that we were the perpetrators of that war (after provocation from the British) and had invaded Canada. From the same article:
"Of Britain's four objectives in its retaliatory invasion of the United States—Lake Champlain, New Orleans, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.—this was the only successful attack. Although the British had successfully diverted the attention of Washington away from the war and prevented further American incursions into Canada,..."
The US declared war on Great Britain June 18, 1812.
My, we've had fun with this one. Maybe it's time for Baloo to tell us what answer he had in mind. Or maybe he just wanted to stir up a debate.
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Baloo55th
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Well, I did ask for somewhere 'invaded and occupied by enemy forces', and to my mind that excludes el Quaeda and the Sioux. The implication was that there was a declared war and actual troops rather than irregulars. I was looking for the invasion of Attu Island - and had only discovered this Japanese invasion of US territory while checking on Attu Island while answering one of author's questions. I didn't expect this much debate, but would have expected people to check before sounding off....
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lammas1
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The last battle on US soil, fought between recognised troops (i.e. not involving indian war parties or gangs of trappers along the Canadian border) occurred at the end of the War of 1812, when a British force captured Fort Bowyer in Alabama. This was the last intended (and, as it happens, successful) invasion. Hostilities ceased a few days later when the US Senate ratified the peace treaty.
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Baloo55th
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Err, lammas, are the Aleutian Islands not US soil? If they aren't, perhaps someone should inform the State of Alaska. Please look at the link I posted above, which I will repeat here: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/TwHP/wwwlps/lessons/7attu/7attu.htm
and note that it is a .gov domain.... I think the 7th Infantry Division versus Japanese invaders counts as 'fought between recognised troops', and there were no Canadian trappers involved, so far as I can tell.
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What-A-Mess
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A NEW CAN-O-WORMS HATH BEEN OPENED.....
Americas Freedoms, Liberties and lifestyles have NEVER been in jeopardy of loss by foreign invaders. EVER. It is an/the enemy within that is putting our livelihoods at risk. There, lies the occupation by enemy forces. Unfortunately the VOTE serves no purpose in this Country any longer. Our freedom is being used against us and we as a people are too used to this "Freedom" for us to ever make the necessary changes to get back our Liberties.
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Baloo55th
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I'm not sure why the Battle of the Aleutians is so neglected - or even denied by some - when it was fought under such appalling conditions. "The U.S. feared that the islands would be used as bases from which to launch aerial assaults against the West Coast, and it became a matter of national pride to expel the first invaders to set foot on American soil since the War of 1812." The campaign was from June 6, 1942 to August 15, 1943, and I will correct myself - Canada was involved but probably not trappers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aleutian_Islands
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