"By September 1900 the British were in control of both Republics, except for the northern part of Transvaal. They however found that they only controlled the ground their columns physically occupied. As soon as the columns left a town or district, British control of that area faded away. The huge territory of the Republics made it impossible for the 250,000 British troops to control it effectively. The vast distances between the columns allowed the Boer commandos considerable freedom to move about. The Boer commanders also decided to adopt a guerrilla style of warfare. The commandos were sent to their own districts with the order to act against the British there whenever possible. Their strategy was to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, and then to move off and vanish when enemy reinforcements arrived."

and this
"Main article: The Banana Wars

The early decades of the 20th century saw a great amount of intervention in Latin America by the U.S. government, often under the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and most often openly in aid of U.S. corporate interests. President William Howard Taft viewed "Dollar Diplomacy" as a way for American corporations to benefit while assisting in the national security goal of preventing European powers, above all the United Kingdom and Germany, from filling any possible financial or power vacuum."

it's all wiki.
consider it.

Overlapping major powers do not need to battle. They compete only for economic goals and taxation principles. Wealth should shortly become secondary to innovation and technology, considering the massive human labor potential and industrial differential in China, and the massive industrial and human labor potential differential in America. Technology will become more valuable to both these empires, and peak oil and massive multipolar politics and economics will stimulate the transition reducing fixed currencies' value. This is on a 3-5 year curve, with 10-12 year minor elements, though.

America controls Palau. It cannot be considered a seperate nation in the Coalition in Iraq. Neither can any other country or territory America controls.