Several of the resources on this page have nothing to do directly with religion. They are meant, rather, to help students visualize and understand US imperialism—meaning, the United States’ historical and ongoing competition with other nations for territory and regional or global dominance, and the United States’ governance of its territories’ indigenous inhabitants.

Except as otherwise indicated, these resources are made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. This means that you have permission to download and copy these resources for classroom use. You can even adapt, or alter, the resources as long as (a) you credit the creator(s) named at the bottom or the end of each resource, and (b) you allow others to use and adapt your adaptation as freely as you’re being allowed to use and adapt this material.

This website is a work in progress. I hope to add more maps and fact sheets in the future.

Image: The United States: Historical territories (one-color shading, labeled)

MAP	NOTES
The United States today: Current territorial claims	global view, labeled
The United States today: Current territorial claims	global view, unlabeled
The United States today: North American and Caribbean territories	closer view, labeled
The United States today: Pacific territories	closer view, labeled
Indigenous reservations in the United States today	continental view, unlabeled
Indigenous reservations in the United States today	closer view, unlabeled
Indigenous reservations in the United States today	closer view, unlabeled, with state boundaries
The United States’ global military presence – contemporary	graduated circles, labeled
The United States’ global military presence – contemporary	graduated circles, unlabeled
The United States’ global military presence – contemporary	shading, unlabeled
The United States’ global military presence – historical	shading, unlabeled
McDonald’s as US cultural imperialism?	graduated circles, unlabeled
McDonald’s as US cultural imperialism?	shading, unlabeled
The United States: Historical territories	one-color shading, unlabeled
The United States: Historical territories	one-color shading, labeled, with key and short narrative summary
The United States: Historical territories	multi-color shading, labeled, with key and short narrative summary
The United States: Historical territories	multi-color shading, labeled, with extended table giving details for each territory
British imperialism in America, 1774	continental view, labeled
British imperialism in America, 1774	closer view (Atlantic), labeled

FACT SHEET	NOTES
What is “religion”?	history of the term; definitional difficulties
Religion and secularization	secularization as a modern process; as a contested subject in US politics
Civil religion	multiple uses of the term
Do Native Americans have “religion”?	claims from the colonial and postcolonial eras
The United States: Historical territories	multi-colored map; extended table giving details for each territory
Unincorporated US territories	tabular data, including largest religious groups; summary of inhabitants’ legal status
Downes v. Bidwell on unincorporated territories	selections from justices’ competing opinions

© 2021-2026 by John-Charles Duffy. Except as otherwise noted, the contents of this website are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommerical–ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Contact: [email protected]