MARIANA ISLANDS

series of volcanic and uplifted coral formations in the western Pacific Ocean, 1,500 mi (2,400 km) east of the Philippines. They are divided politically into Guam (an organized unincorporated territory of the United States) and an island chain, the Northern Marianas, which comprises a U.S. commonwealth. (It was part of the U.S.-administered United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from 1947 to 1986.) The Northern Marianas extend 450 miles (725 km) north of Guam and have a total area of about 184 square miles (477 square km). The more important islands are Saipan, Tinian, Agrihan, and Rota (qq.v.). Pagan, Asuncion, and Farallon de Pajaros are active volcanoes. Guam occupies 209 square miles (541 square km). The climate is tropical. After their European discovery by Ferdinand Magellan (1521), the Portuguese navigator sailing for Spain, the Marianas were visited frequently but were not colonized until 1668, when their name was changed by Jesuit missionaries from Ladrones Islands (Thieves Islands) to honour Mariana of Austria, then regent of Spain. The Jesuits then began to forcibly convert the native Chamorro to Catholicism. Guam was ceded to the United States following the Spanish-American War (1898), and the Northern Marianas were sold to Germany in 1899. Occupied by Japan in 1914, the Northern Marianas became a Japanese mandate from the League of Nations after 1919. Seized by the United States in World War II, they were prepared as forward bases for the invasion of Japan but were never used as such. The islands were part of a trusteeship granted to the United States by the United Nations in 1947; in 1978 they chose to become a self-governing commonwealth and achieved this formal status upon the dissolution of the trust territory in 1986. The economy of the Marianas is largely based on subsistence agriculture, with some income from copra and services to U.S. military installations; cattle are also raised. The population is descended from the pre-Spanish Chamorro with considerable intermingling of Spanish, Mexican, Philippine, German, and Japanese blood. Spanish cultural traditions are strong. See also Guam. Pop. (1992 est.) Northern Marianas, 44,800; Guam, 139,000.