Self-governing commonwealth (pop., 2002 est.: 70,000) in political union with the U.S., in the western Pacific Ocean.
Composed of 22 islands north of Guam , the Northern Marianas extend 450 mi (720 km) and have an area of 184 sq mi (477 sq km). The capital, Chalan Kanoa, is on Saipan . Saipan, Tinian, and Rota are the principal inhabited islands. Others include Alamagan and Agrihan; Pagan was evacuated for a time after a 1981 volcanic eruption. The indigenous people are Micronesian; other inhabitants are Chamorro and Filipino. The islands were discovered by League of Nations after 1919. They were the scene of fierce fighting in World War II; Tinian was the base for U.S. planes that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The Northern Marianas were granted to the U.S. in 1947 as a UN trust territory, became self-governing in 1978, and became a commonwealth under U.S. sovereignty in 1986, when the residents became U.S. citizens. The UN trusteeship ended in 1990.