When the Corn Islands were leased to the United States

Made up of Great Corn and Little Corn Islands, the Corn Islands lie about thirty miles off the coast of Nicaragua. They were never a U.S. insular area, that is, under the sovereignty of the United States, but were leased from Nicaragua for a period of ninety-nine years under the Convention of Washington, D.C., of August 5, 1914, also called the Chamorro-Bryan Convention. 

Article II of the Convention stated that for the protection of the Panama Canal, Great Corn Island and Little Corn Island were to be leased for 99 years to the United States. The convention also established that the United States could operate and maintain a naval base at any place in the Nicaraguan territory.

The terms of the lease made the Corn Islands subject exclusively to American laws and administration. However, with the United States acquiescence, the Government of Nicaragua directed the islands' local administration. The United States right to the actual or potential use of the islands remained unimpaired until April 25, 1971, when the lease was officially terminated and the Convention of Managua of July 14, 1970, entered into force.