AMERICA'S NEW EMPIRE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11121, 13 January 1899, Page 3

AMERICA'S NEW EMPIRE.

By the treaty of peace agreed to by the Commissioners of Spain and of the United States, America becomes the possessor of all the colonial dependencies of Spain excepb those in Africa and the Caroline Islands. The area and population of the countries acquired from Spain (including Cuba) are as follows : — Areain Name. Sq. Miles. Population. Philippine Islands... 114,050 7,670,000 Cuba 41,655 1,631,687 Porto Rico 3,670 813,937 Sulu Islands ... 950 75,0U0 Total 360,925 10,190,624 To these should be added the territory not contiguous acquired by purchase or annexation, as follows : — Area in Sq. Miles. Population. Alaska 531,000 150,000 Hawaii 6,640 109,020 Total ' 537,610 259,020 : Grand total foreign possessions ... 698,565 10,449,644 i Compared with the colonial possessions < of Great Britain this is but a speck, and is less than one-fifth the foreign territory ' of Prance, but compares very favorably ' with other countries, as may be seen by > the following table, which gives the area i and population of the foreign possessions ' or dependencies of the nations which lead • i in this particular form of property : — Area in Sq. Miles. Population. Great Britain ... 11,250,412 344,059,123 1 France 3,617,327 52,642,930 1 Germany ... 1,020,070 10,600,000 * Portugal ... 801,060 9,216,707 Netherlands ... 783,000 35,000,000 United State 3 ... 698,565 10,449,644 s Spain 244,857 182,172 ' Denmark ... 86,614 114,229 This places America sixth in the area * and fifth in the population of foreign < possessions. Russia is not included in this table because all its possessions are contiguous. i