Mariana Islands

Coordinates: 16°42′N 145°47′E / 16.70°N 145.78°E / 16.70; 145.78
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands are shown, with the territory of Guam to the extreme south, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (14 islands) to the north. Active volcanoes are shown with triangles.
Map
Geography
LocationPacific Ocean
Coordinates16°42′N 145°47′E / 16.70°N 145.78°E / 16.70; 145.78
Administration
United States
Northern Mariana Islands (U.S.)
Guam (U.S.)

The Mariana Islands (/ˌmæriˈɑːnə/ MARR-ee-AH-nə; Chamorro: Manislan Mariånas), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fourteen[1] 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 Oceanic 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.[2]

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.

Geography

Geology of the west Pacific in the area of the Mariana Islands. The Mariana Islands are at map-right, east of the Philippine Sea and just west of the Mariana Trench in the ocean floor.

The Mariana Islands are the southern part of a submerged mountain range that extends 1,565 miles (2,519 km) from Guam to near Japan. Geographically, the Marianas are part of a larger region called Micronesia, situated between 13° and 21°N latitude and 144° and 146°E longitude.

The Mariana Islands have a total land area of 1,008 km2 (389 sq mi).[3] 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 inhabited except Aguijan. In the northern volcanic group a maximum elevation of about 2,700 feet (820 m) 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.

Geology

The islands are part of a

Mariana plate, a region which is the most volcanically active convergent plate boundary on Earth. This subduction region, just east of the island chain, forms the noted Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's oceans and lowest part of the surface of the Earth's crust. In this region, according to geologic theory, water trapped in the extensive faulting of the Pacific Plate as serpentinite, is heated by the higher temperatures of depth during its subduction, the pressure from the expanding steam results in the hydrothermal activity in the area and the volcanic activity which formed the Mariana Islands.[4]

Ecology

Marianas tropical dry forests
Tropical dry forest on Saipan
Ecology
RealmOceanian
BiomeTropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests
Bird species59[5]
Mammal species2[5]
Geography
Area1,036 km2 (400 sq mi)
CountryUnited States
TerritoriesGuam and the Northern Mariana Islands
Conservation
Conservation statusCritical/Endangered[6]
Habitat loss76.8%[5]
Protected1.11%[5]

All the islands, except

cryptogams
are numerous, as are also most kinds of grasses. On most of the islands there is a plentiful supply of water.

The fauna of the Marianas, though inferior in number and variety, is similar in character to that of the

trade winds
, is milder than that of the Philippines; the variations of temperature are not great.

The majority of islands in the Marianas still retain their indigenous names ending in the letters -an; e.g.

Aguihan/Aguigan, Pagan, Sarigan, Saipan, and Tinian
.

History

Prehistory

The islands are part of a geologic structure known as the Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc system and range in age from 5 million years old in the north to 30 million years old in the south (Guam). The islands are formed as the highly dense and very old western edge of the Pacific Plate plunges downward to form the floor of the Mariana Trench and carries trapped water under the Mariana plate as it does so. This water is super-heated as the plate is carried farther downward and results in the volcanic activity which has formed the arc of Mariana Islands above this subduction region.

Map showing the Neolithic Austronesian migrations into the islands of the Indo-Pacific

The Mariana Islands were the first islands settled by humans in

Polynesian settlement of the rest of Remote Oceania. They were first settled around 1500 to 1400 BCE by migrants departing from the Philippines.[7][8]

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.[7]

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.[7][9]

Guma Taga
on Tinian. The pillars/columns are called latte (pronounced læ'di) stones, a common architectural element of prehistoric structures in the Mariana Islands, upon which elevated buildings were built. Earthquakes had toppled the other latte at this site by the time this photo was taken; an earthquake in 1902 toppled the one seen on the left, and today only the one on the right remains standing.

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.[10][11]

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.[10]

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.[12]

The period 900 to 1700 CE of the Marianas, immediately before and during the Spanish colonization, is known as the

Pacific Islands.[13]

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.[13]

Spanish exploration and control

Reception of the Manila Galleon by the Chamorro in the Ladrones Islands, c. 1590 Boxer Codex

The first Europeans to see the island group were a Spanish expedition, who on March 6, 1521, observed a string of islands and sailed between two of them during a

Philippines, revealed a drawing of the islands with a tiny island to the south of a much larger island above it. The described placement of the islands confirms that Magellan had actually sailed between Guam and Cocos Island, and not Guam and Rota, as some originally thought, especially since the northern areas of Guam do not have safe coves or harbors to anchor.[citation needed] Moreover, the waters of Northern Guam are often rougher and the currents are even more treacherous in comparison to the safer coves and currents seen by the southwestern side of Guam.[citation needed
]

Regardless of where they landed, the Spanish ships arrived in Guam and were unable to get fresh food as the inhabitants, Chamorros, "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.[14]: 129  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."[14]: 131  Pigafetta writes,

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.

Pigafetta also described the boats the inhabitants used, including the sail shaped like a "lateen sail" (actually the

Lateen Sails),[14]
: 131  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.

A stamp from the Marianas' late Spanish colonial period, 1898–1899

In 1667,

cinerary urns were found embedded in the capitals.[dubious
]

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.[19] The Ladrones were visited by Byron in 1765, Wallis in 1767 and Crozet in 1772.

The Marianas and specifically the island of Guam were a stopover for Spanish galleons en route from

Filipinos were exiled to Guam, including the father of Pedro Paterno, Maximo Paterno, Dr. Antonio M. Regidor y Jurado and Jose Maria Basa.[20]
: 107–108 

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.[21] The last known visit was made by the American whaler Charles W. Morgan in February 1904.[22]

Loss from Spain and split in governance

A 1901 stamp from the German-era Marianas

The Marianas remained a Spanish

general government of the Philippines until 1898, when, as a result of its loss in the Spanish–American War, Spain 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 Filipino leaders were exiled to Guam in 1901.[23]
: vi 

Weakened from its defeat in the Spanish–American War,

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.[citation needed
]

Japan, allied with the Entente Powers 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 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.

World War II

A U.S. Marine talks a terrified Chamorro woman and her children into abandoning their refuge. Battle of Saipan, 1944.

The island chain saw significant fighting during World War II.

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.[24] 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
.

According to Werner Gruhl: "Mariana Island historians estimate that 10 percent of Guam's some 20,000 population were killed by violence, most by the

Post-World War II

The direct result of World War II on the Mariana Islands was that, after the war, the

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

Island name Population Municipality or territory
Guam 159,358 Guam
Saipan 48,220 Saipan
Tinian 3,136 Tinian
Rota 2,477 Rota
Aguigan
0 Tinian
Farallon de Pajaros 0 Northern Islands
Maug Islands 0 Northern Islands
Asuncion 0 Northern Islands
Agrihan 0 Northern Islands
Pagan 0 Northern Islands
Alamagan 0 Northern Islands
Guguan 0 Northern Islands
Papaungan 0 Northern Islands
Sarigan 0 Northern Islands
Anatahan 0 Northern Islands
Farallon de Medinilla 0 Northern Islands

Tourism

Tourism in the Northern Marianas is split mainly between Filipino, Japanese, American, Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese tourists. There are several large tour operators in Saipan that cater to Asian tourists coming into the island. By far, the majority of tourism in the Northern 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 of the CNMI.[citation needed]

Amateur radio operators conduct

DXpeditions
to the Islands at intervals.

Cuisine

Chamorro red rice

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),[26] and tropical fruits.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam – Pacific Islands Benthic Habitat Mapping Center". Archived from the original on 2023-08-27. Retrieved 2023-08-27.
  2. ^ Zotomayor, Alexie Villegas (11 Mar 2013). "Archaeologist says migration to Marianas longest ocean-crossing in human history". Marianas Variety. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  3. ^ The CIA World Factbook (2006).
  4. ^ "Pacific Ocean – Geology of Mariana Islands". 23 December 2010. Archived from the original on 23 December 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ a b c d "The Atlas of Global Conservation". maps.tnc.org. Archived from the original on 2012-03-05. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  6. ^ "Western Micronesia: north of Papua New Guinea | Ecoregions | WWF". World Wildlife Fund. Archived from the original on 2020-09-27. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
  7. ^ .
  8. ^ Zotomayor, Alexie Villegas (12 March 2013). "Archaeologists say migration to Marianas longest ocean-crossing in human history". Marianas Variety News and Views: 2. Archived from the original on 21 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
  9. ^ Carson, Mike T. (2012). "History of Archaeological Study in the Mariana Islands" (PDF). Micronesica. 42 (1/2): 312–371. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  10. ^
    S2CID 224817625
    .
  11. .
  12. ^ Peterson, John A. (2012). "Latte villages in Guam and the Marianas: Monumentality or monumenterity?" (PDF). Micronesica. 42 (1/2): 183–208. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-12. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  13. ^ a b Laguana, Andrew; Kurashina, Hiro; Carson, Mike T.; Peterson, John A.; Bayman, James M.; Ames, Todd; Stephenson, Rebecca A.; Aguon, John; Harya Putra, Ir. D.K. (2012). "Estorian i latte: A story of latte" (PDF). Micronesica. 42 (1/2): 80–120. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  14. ^
    OCLC 347382
    .
  15. ^ "About the CNMI". Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Office of the Governor. Archived from the original on 17 August 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2020. In 1668, 147 years after Magellan's encounter, Fr. Diego Luis de San Vitores, a Jesuit priest, arrived in The Marianas with the mission to convert and implement Christianity among the Chamorros, thus beginning the colonization of The Marianas by Spain. The islands were named after Queen Maria Ana of Spain.
  16. from the original on 2023-09-25. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  17. ^ Warheit, Vanessa "The Insular Empire: America in the Mariana Islands." Archived 2017-09-04 at the Wayback Machine PBS (documentary). Accessed June 2012.
  18. from the original on 2023-09-25. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  19. ^ George, Lord Anion (1748). Voyage round the World, book iii.
  20. OCLC 3913054
    .
  21. .
  22. ^ Langdon, p.163
  23. OCLC 120546
    .
  24. ^ "Air Raids & Attempted Air Raids against Saipan from 1 Nov 1944 to Occupation of Iwo Jima"
  25. ^ "Apigigi' or Sweet Tamales" Archived 2014-12-03 at the Wayback Machine (Aug. 10, 2013) Annie's Chamorro Kitchen

Sources

Encyclopedic sources

External links