Navassa Island (The Era of Relative Peace)

Navassa Island is a small uninhabited island in the Caribbean, administered as an unorganized unincorporated territory of the United States of America since September 19, 1857 under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. During World War III, the island was occupied by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces due to it being a U.S. territory and it being uninhabited. Cuba would then invade nearby Haiti. When the tide turned in favor of the Allied forces, the United States would liberate the island by blockading and starving off the Cuban forces there. They surrendered peacefully to the U.S. Navy after a week of tense negotiation. After the war, Navassa would become a U.S. Coast Guard outpost to warn ships that might collide with it. In 2001, the outpost was manned by a joint Coast Guard and U.S. Wildlife and Fish Service team which made the island into a nature preserve. Haiti has claimed sovereignty over Navassa since 1801 and claims the island in its constitution, disputing the U.S. claim.