<P> Previously the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark -- Norway , they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916 . They are classified by the U.N. as a Non-Self - Governing Territory , and are currently an organized , unincorporated United States territory . The U.S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions . The last and only proposed Constitution , adopted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2009 , was rejected by the U.S. Congress in 2010 , which urged the convention to reconvene to address the concerns Congress and the Obama Administration had with the proposed document . The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands met in October 2012 to address these concerns , but was not able to produce a revised Constitution before its October 31 deadline . </P>
<P> Previously the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark -- Norway , they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of 1916 . They are classified by the U.N. as a Non-Self - Governing Territory , and are currently an organized , unincorporated United States territory . The U.S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions . The last and only proposed Constitution , adopted by the Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2009 , was rejected by the U.S. Congress in 2010 , which urged the convention to reconvene to address the concerns Congress and the Obama Administration had with the proposed document . The Fifth Constitutional Convention of the U.S. Virgin Islands met in October 2012 to address these concerns , but was not able to produce a revised Constitution before its October 31 deadline . </P>
when did the virgin islands become a us territory
when did the virgin islands become a us territory
1916
1916