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Northern Mariana Islands

Introduction:

The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is an insular area and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.  The CNMI includes the 14 northernmost islands in the Mariana Archipelago except the southernmost island of the chain, Guam, which is a separate U.S. territory.  The CNMI and Guam are the westernmost point (in terms of jurisdiction) and territory of the United States.

Northern Mariana Islands on the Globe
Northern Mariana Islands on the Globe

The United States Department of the Interior cites a landmass of 183.5 square miles.  According to the 2010 United States Census, 53,883 people were living in the CNMI at that time.  The vast majority of the population resides on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.  The other islands of the Northern Marianas are sparsely inhabited; the most notable among these is Pågan, which for various reasons over the centuries has experienced major population flux, but formerly had residents numbering in the thousands.

The administrative center is Capitol Hill, a village in northwestern Saipan.  However, most publications consider Saipan to be the capital because the island is governed as a single municipality.

History:

Pre-History:

The first people of the Mariana Islands emigrated at some point between 4000 BC and 2000 BC from Southeast Asia.  After first contact with Spaniards, they eventually became known as the Chamorros, a Spanish word similar to Chamori, the name of the indigenous caste system’s higher division.

Chamorro People
Chamorro People

The ancient people of the Marianas raised colonnades of megalithic capped pillars called latte stones upon which they built their homes.  The Spanish reported that by the time of their arrival, the largest of these were already in ruins, and that the Chamorros believed the ancestors who had erected the pillars lived in an era when people possessed supernatural abilities.

Archeologists in 2013 posited that the first people to settle in the Marianas may have made what was at that point the longest uninterrupted ocean-crossing voyage in human history, and that archeological evidence indicates that Tinian might have been the first Pacific island outside of Asia to be settled.

Spanish Possession:

The first European explorer of the area, the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, arrived in 1521.  He landed on Guam, the southernmost island of the Marianas, and claimed the archipelago for Spain.  The Spanish ships were met offshore by the native Chamorros, who delivered refreshments and then helped themselves to a small boat belonging to Magellan’s fleet.  This led to a cultural clash: in Chamorro tradition, little property was private and taking something one needed, such as a boat for fishing, did not count as stealing.  The Spanish did not understand this custom, and fought the Chamorros until the boat was recovered.  Three days after he had been welcomed on his arrival, Magellan fled the archipelago.  Spain regarded the islands as annexed and later made them part of the Spanish East Indies (1565).

Colonial Tower from Spanish Times
Colonial Tower from Spanish Times
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