On this week's on the media, how the map of the U.S. we grew up with has never shown us our true selves.

If you looked up at the end of 1945 and you saw a U.S. flag flying overhead, it was more likely that you were living in a colony or occupied zone than you were actually living on the U.S. mainland.

And the origins of the American Empire lie in the so-called guano islands in the Caribbean.

I asked some historian friends, what do you think is the worst job in the 19th century to have?

And I think I can now say with confidence, guano mining's the worst.

America's holdings then expanded to include

Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and elsewhere,

despite the claims of many a U.S. president.

We do not seek for ourselves one inch of territory

in any place in the world.

An exploration of empire after this.

From WNYC in New York, this is on the media.

Michael Lohenger's out this week.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

Donald Trump said last month on Meet the Press

that given how much the U.S. is, quote, subsidizing Canada and Mexico,

both nations should just become states.

That was probably a joke, right?

But he seems dead serious about buying Greenland, ostensibly because of its location and resources,

and despite it definitely being

not for sale. He also wants the Panama Canal, which belongs to Panama. You know, we have this

notion that the United States, being a republic and former colony, never was and never aspired to be a colonial power.

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