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The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east. They lie south-southeast of Japan, west-southwest of Hawaii, north of New Guinea, and east of the Philippines, demarcating the Philippine Sea's eastern limit. They are found in the northern part of the western Oceania sub-region of Micronesia, and are politically divided into two jurisdictions of the United States: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and, at the southern end of the chain, the territory of Guam. The islands were named after the influential Spanish queen Mariana of Austria following their colonization in the 17th century.
The indigenous inhabitants are the Chamorro people. Archaeologists in 2013 reported findings which indicated that the people who first settled the Marianas arrived there after making what may have been at the time the longest uninterrupted ocean voyage in human history. They further reported findings which suggested that Tinian is likely to have been the first island in Oceania to have been settled by humans.
Spanish expeditions, beginning with one by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in the early 16th century, were the first Europeans to arrive; eventually, Spain annexed and colonized the archipelago, establishing their capital on the largest island, Guam. The Marianas were the first islands Magellan encountered after traversing the Pacific from the southern tip of South America. The fruits found there saved the survivors from scurvy, which had already killed dozens of crewmembers.
The Mariana Islands have a total land area of .
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The CIA World Factbook (2006).
They are composed of two administrative units:
The island chain geographically consists of two subgroups, a northern group of ten volcanic main islands, all are currently uninhabited; and a southern group of five coralline limestone islands (Rota, Guam, Aguijan, Tinian and Saipan), all of which are inhabited except for Aguijan. In the northern volcanic group a maximum elevation of about is reached; there are craters showing signs of activity, and earthquakes are not uncommon. Coral reefs fringe the coasts of the southern isles, which are of slight elevation.
The lowest point on the Earth's crust, the Mariana Trench, is near the islands and is named after them.
The majority of islands in the Marianas still retain their indigenous names ending in the letters -an; for example, Guam (the indigenous name of Guam), Agrigan, Agrihan, Aguihan/Aguigan, Pagan, Sarigan, Saipan, and Tinian.
The fauna of the Marianas, though inferior in number and variety, is similar in character to that of the Caroline Islands and certain species are indigenous to both island groups. The climate though damp is healthy, while the heat, being tempered by the , is milder than that of the Philippines; the variations of temperature are not great.
The Mariana Islands were the first islands settled by humans in Remote Oceania. Incidentally it is also the first and the longest of the ocean-crossing voyages of the Austronesian peoples into Remote Oceania, and is separate from the later Polynesian settlement of the rest of Remote Oceania. They were first settled around 1500 to 1400 BCE by migrants departing from the Philippines.
Archeological studies of human activity on the islands have revealed pottery with red-slipped, circle-stamped and punctate-stamped designs found in the Mariana Islands dating from between 1500 and 1400 BC. These artifacts show similar aesthetics to pottery found in Northern and Central Philippines, particularly Nagsabaran (Cagayan Valley) pottery, which flourished during the period between 2000 and 1300 BC.
Comparative and historical linguistics also indicate that the Chamorro language is most closely related to the Philippine subfamily of the Austronesian languages, instead of the Oceanic subfamily of the languages found in the rest of Remote Oceania.
Mitochondrial DNA and whole genome sequencing of the Chamorro people strongly support an ancestry from the Philippines. Genetic analysis of pre-Latte stone skeletons in Guam also show that they do not have Australo-Melanesian ("Papuan") ancestry, which rules out origins from the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, and eastern Indonesia. The Lapita culture itself (the ancestral branch of the Polynesian migrations) is younger than the first settlement of the Marianas (the earliest Lapita artifacts are dated to around 1350 to 1300 BCE), indicating that they originated from separate migration voyages.
Nevertheless, DNA analyses also show close genetic relationships between ancient settlers of the Marianas and early Lapita settlers in the Bismarck Archipelago. This may indicate that both the Lapita culture and the Marianas were settled from direct migrations from the Philippines, or that early settlers from the Marianas voyaged further southwards into the Bismarcks and reconnected with the Lapita people.
The Marianas also later established contact with and received migrations from the Caroline Islands at around the first millennium CE. This brought new pottery styles, languages, genes, and the hybrid Polynesian breadfruit.
The period 900 to 1700 CE of the Marianas, immediately before and during the Spanish colonization, is known as the Latte stone. It is characterized by rapid cultural change, most notably by the massive megalithic latte stones (also spelled latde or latti). These were composed of the haligi pillars capped with another stone called tasa (which prevented rodents from climbing the posts). These served as supports for the rest of the structure which was made of wood. Remains of structures made with similar wooden posts have also been found. Human graves have also been found in front of latte structures, The Latte period was also characterized by the introduction of rice agriculture, which is unique in the pre-contact Pacific Islands.
The reasons for these changes is still unclear, but it is believed that it may have resulted from a third wave of migrants from Island Southeast Asia. Comparisons with other architectural traditions makes it likely that this third migration wave were again from the Philippines, or from eastern Indonesia (either Sulawesi or Sumba), all of which have a tradition of raised buildings with capstones. The word haligi ("pillar") is also used in various languages throughout the Philippines; while the Chamorro word guma ("house") closely resembles the Sumba word uma.
Regardless of where they landed, the Spanish ships arrived in Guam and were unable to get fresh food as the inhabitants, Chamorro people, "entered the ships and stole whatever they could lay their hands on", including "the small boat that was fastened to the poop of the flagship", according to Spanish crewman Antonio Pigafetta. The Spanish crew, in retaliation, attacked the Chamorros and dubbed the islands Islas de los Ladrones (Islands of the Thieves). Wrote Pigafetta, "Those people are poor, but ingenious and very thievish, on account of which we called those three islands the islands of Ladrones." Pigafetta writes,
Pigafetta also described the boats the inhabitants used, including the sail shaped like a "lateen sail" (actually the crab claw sail), hence the name Islas de las Velas Latinas (Islands of the Lateen sail), the name used as Magellan claimed them for the Spanish crown. San Lazarus archipelago, Jardines ('gardens') and Prazeres are among the names applied to them by later navigators.
In 1667, Spanish Empire formally claimed them, established a regular colony there and in 1668 gave the islands the official title of Las Marianas, in honor of Spanish Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of King Philip IV of Spain and Queen Regent of the Spanish Empire ruling during the minority of her son King Charles II. They then had a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants. With the arrival of passengers and settlers aboard the from the Americas, new diseases were introduced in the islands, which caused many deaths in the native Chamorros population. The native population, who referred to themselves as Taotao Tano (people of the land)Warheit, Vanessa "The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands." PBS (documentary). Accessed June 2012. but were known to the early Spanish colonists as Chamurres or HachaMori, eventually died out as a distinct people, though their descendants intermarried. At the Spanish occupation in 1668, the Chamorros were estimated at 50,000, but a century later only 1,800 natives remained, as the majority of the population was of mixed Spanish-Chamorro blood or mestizo. They were characteristic Micronesians, with a considerable civilization. On the island of Tinian are some remains attributed to them, consisting of two rows of massive square stone columns, about broad and high, with heavy, round capitals called . According to early Spanish accounts were found embedded in the capitals.
When Spanish settlement started on 14 June 1668, they were subordinate to the Mexican colony (soon viceroyalty) of New Spain, until 1817, when they became subordinated to the Philippines, as part of the Spanish East Indies.
Research in the archipelago was carried out by Commodore Anson, who in August 1742 landed upon the island of Tinian. The Ladrones were visited by John Byron in 1765, Samuel Wallis in 1767 and in 1772.
The Marianas and specifically the island of Guam were a stopover for Spanish galleons en route from Acapulco, Mexico to Manila, Philippines in a convoy known as the Manila Galleon. Following the 1872 Cavite mutiny, several Filipino people were exiled to Guam, including the father of Pedro Paterno, Maximo Paterno, Dr. Antonio M. Regidor y Jurado and Jose Maria Basa.
The islands were a popular port of call for British and American whaling ships in the 19th century. The first such visit on record was that of the Resource to Guam in October 1799.
Weakened from its defeat in the Spanish–American War, Spanish Empire could no longer effectively control and protect the nearly 6,000 islands it retained throughout Micronesia, including the Northern Marianas, Caroline Islands and Pelew Islands. Therefore, Spain entered into the German-Spanish Treaty of February 12, 1899 to sell the Northern Marianas and its other remaining islands to German Empire for 837,500 German gold marks (about US$4,100,000 at the time). The Northern Marianas and other island groups were incorporated by Germany as a small part of the larger German Protectorate of New Guinea. The total population in the Northern Marianas portion of these islands was only 2,646 inhabitants around this time, with the ten most northerly islands being actively volcanic and thus mostly uninhabited.
Japan, allied with the Triple Entente during World War I, seized all of Germany's colonial possessions in East Asia and Micronesia, including the Northern Mariana Islands, and held them through the end of the war. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was stripped of all her colonies worldwide, including the Palau, Caroline, Northern Mariana and Marshall Islands. By international agreement, these were all placed into trusteeship under the management of the League of Nations which assigned them to Japan as the Class C South Seas Mandate. During this time, Japan used some of the islands for sugarcane production, modestly increasing the population of a few of the islands.
According to Werner Gruhl: "Mariana Island historians estimate that 10 percent of Guam's approximately 20,000 population were killed by violence, most by the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy."Werner Gruhl, Imperial Japan's World War Two, 1931–1945, Transaction Publishers, 2007
Population: 47,329
And the Captain general wished to approach the largest of these three islands to replenish his provisions. But it was not possible, for the people of those islands entered the ships and robbed us so that we could not protect ourselves from them. And when we wished to strike and take in the sails so as to land, they stole very quickly the small boat called a skiff which was fastened to the poop of the captain's ship. At which he, being very angry, went ashore with forty armed men. And burning some forty or fifty houses with several boats and killing seven men of the said island, they recovered their skiff.
Robert Langdon (1984). 086784471X, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. 086784471X The last known visit was made by the American whaler Charles W. Morgan in February 1904.Langdon, p.163
Loss from Spain and split in governance
The Marianas remained a Spanish colony under the general government of the Philippines until 1898, when, as a result of its loss in the Spanish–American War, Spanish Empire ceded Guam to the United States. Guam has been separate from the Northern Marianas since this time. Following the Philippine–American War, Apolinario Mabini and other Filipinos leaders were exiled to Guam in 1901.
World War II
The island chain saw significant fighting during World War II. Guam, a possession of the United States since 1898, was captured by Japan in an attack from the Northern Mariana Islands that began on the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 8, 1941, the same time as the Pearl Harbor attack across the International Date Line). In 1944, the United States captured the Mariana Islands chain from Japan: the Northern Mariana Islands were desired by the U.S. as bombing bases to reach the Mainland Japan, with the invasion of Saipan being launched for that reason in June before the U.S. even moved to recapture Guam; a month later the U.S. recaptured Guam and captured Tinian. Once captured, Saipan and Tinian's islands were used extensively by the United States military as they finally put mainland Japan within a round-trip range of American B-29 bombers. In response, Japanese forces attacked the bases on Saipan and Tinian from November 1944 to February 1945."Air Raids & Attempted Air Raids against Saipan from 1 Nov 1944 to Occupation of Iwo Jima" At the same time and afterwards, the United States Army Air Forces based on these islands conducted an intense strategic bombing campaign against the Japanese cities of military and industrial importance, including Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe, and others. Both US bombers the Enola Gay and the Bockscar (which dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively) flew their missions from Tinian's North Field.
Post-World War II
The direct result of World War II on the Mariana Islands was that, after the war, the Northern Mariana Islands came under the control of the United States in the same way they had earlier come under the control of Japan after World War I. However, this time they became part of the U.S.-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 21. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands later became a U.S. territory following its exit from the TTPI pursuant to Security Council Resolution 683. Although now both under U.S. control, the Northern Mariana Islands are separate from Guam. Efforts at reunification have failed in part due to residual post-war tensions resulting from the very different histories of Guam (occupied by Japan for only 31 months, in wartime) and the Northern Mariana Islands (more peacefully occupied by Japan, for about 30 years).
List of islands (from north to south)
In addition, the Esmeralda Bank, Ruby Seamount, and Supply Reef are submarine landforms in the Mariana archipelago.
Farallon de Pajaros (Uracus) 0 Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)
(unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the USA)
Municipality of Northern Islands
Population: 7 Maug Islands 0 Asuncion Island 0 Agrihan 4 Pagan 2 Alamagan 1 Guguan 0 Zealandia Bank Sarigan 0 Anatahan 0 Farallon de Medinilla 0 Saipan 43,385 Municipality of Saipan Tinian 2,044 Municipality of Tinian Aguigan 0 Rota 1,893 Municipality of Rota Guam 153,836 Guam (territory of the USA) 19 villages of Guam
Tourism
Tourism in the Northern Marianas is split mainly between Philippines, Japanese, American, South Korea, Taiwan, and China tourists. There are several large tour operators in Saipan that cater to Asian tourists coming to the island. By far, the majority of tourism in the Marianas is in Guam. Several flights a day land in Guam, mostly in the early hours between 1:00 AM and 3:30 AM. With the close of the garment industries in the Northern Marianas, tourism has grown slowly and is now a major part of the economy. Many businesses on the islands rely on purchases from tourists, many of which are from East Asia. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely taken a toll on tourism and the variety of nationalities arriving on the islands has rapidly dwindled, making Korean visitors comprise a large majority of tourist arrivals. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands have reported a 55.6% and 53% decrease in visitors between calendar years 2019 and 2024 respectively. Adding to the decline in tourism is the delay of Electronic visa for Chinese tourists, which is another major blow to the "already crumbling economy" of the Mariana Islands. There is progress to combat the tourism decline, including plans such as the 2 year, $60 million tourist recovery plan backed by Guam governor Lou Leon Guerrero and envisioned by the Guam Visitors Bureau.
Cuisine
Common dishes in the Mariana Islands include red rice, meat or poultry on the grill or in coconut milk, chicken kelaguen, apigigi (young coconut with cassava paste wrapped in banana leaf), "Apigigi' or Sweet Tamales" (Aug. 10, 2013) Annie's Chamorro Kitchen and tropical fruits.
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