Guam - American island in the South Pacific
The island of Guam is located in the northwestern Pacific, east of
the Philippines and west of Hawaii around 10,000 km from the west coast of the
USA.
Guam is the largest and most populous island in Micronesia, which also includes
the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Nauru, the Marshall
Islands, Kiribati, the US Territories, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
It is part of the latter group of islands. Guam means "we have".
The island - the largest and most southerly of the Mariana Islands - was
discovered by the navigator Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and was under the control
of Spain for more than 300 years. Only after the Spanish-American War of 1898
did it belong to the USA as an "outer area".
Between 1941 and the summer of 1944, Guam was occupied by the Japanese.
With around 6,000 soldiers, the island is still one of the most strategically
important military bases - especially for the air force - in the US in the
Pacific. The Americans have declared the island a free trade zone, which means
that you can buy many goods on Guam duty-free.
This is particularly used by tourists from Japan, who make up about 80% of the
visitors to the island.
Guam residents are US citizens, but they do not have the right to vote in the
election of the US president.
There is an American governor on the island and an island congressman in
Washington.
Those who are looking for originality have to look very intensively for the
few remaining untouched places on Guam - after it was taken over by the US
military.
| Name of the country |
Guam |
| Form of government |
United States non-incorporated territory |
| Location |
Southernmost island in the Mariana Islands, in the west of the
Pacific Ocean |
| National anthem |
The American national anthem as well as the Guam anthem "Stand Ye
Guamanians" |
| Population |
approx. 160,000 (Credit:
Countryaah: Guam Facts) |
| Ethnicities |
37% Chamorro
28% Filipinos
27% Asians
10% Whites |
| Religion |
85% Catholics and 15% others |
| Languages |
English, Chammoral and Japanese |
| Capital |
Hagatna (Hagåtña) with about 1,500 residents |
| Surface |
549 km² |
| Highest mountain |
Mount Lamlam, with a height of 406 m |
| Longest river |
The Talofo |
| Largest lake in area |
Fena Lake |
| International license plate |
GUM |
| Currency |
US dollars = 100 cents |
| Time difference to CET |
+ 9 h |
| International phone code |
+ 00 1671 |
| Internet TLD (Top Level Domain) |
.gu |
Guam History
It is believed that Guam was founded around 1,500 BC. Together with the
Mariannen Islands, to which Guam is counted, was settled by the ethnic group of
the Chomorro from Indonesia.
According to
Abbreviationfinder website, society was structured matrilinearly, that is, along the lines of the
mother. This gave women a special position.
This ethnic group was the only one in Micronesia to grow rice.
Europeans
On March 6, 1521, the Portuguese explorer and navigator Ferdinand Magellan
(1480-1521) reached Guam while crossing the Pacific. He probably anchored in
what is now Umatac Bay. Magellan called the Marianne Islands "Islas de los
Ladrones" (Islands of Thieves) after the fleet landed on Guam and the natives
tried to steal one of the dinghies.
Magellan therefore had some of the natives executed and many houses burned
down. For the Spaniards, Guam was an important stopover on the trade route from
Acapulco in Mexico to Manila in the Philippines.
According to the latest research by Scott Fitzpatrick at North Carolina State
University in the USA, Magellan originally wanted to reach the Moluccas, but was
forced to correct course as a result of the El Nino climatic phenomenon, which
then led him to Guam, around 2,500 km northeast of it.
The Jesuit pastor Diego Luis de Sanvitores then founded a missionary station
in today's capital Haganta in 1668, i.e. 150 years later. The Spaniards
relocated entire islands of the northern Marians to simplify missionary
work. This is how the village of Merizo in the south of the island of Guam came
into being. Not least for this reason, the affected islands of the Marianni are
partly uninhabited to this day.
However, the residents resisted the missionaries' attempts until 1890. At that
time, the population was also considerably decimated due to imported diseases.
After the Spanish - American War, which lasted from April 23, 1898 to August 12,
1898, the island of Guam was transferred to the USA in the Treaty of Paris on
December 10 of the same year. It should be added that as a result of this war,
Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines were taken over by the USA.
In 1941 the Japanese attacked and occupied the island in the course of World War
II - in 1944 the USA had recaptured the island and established a permanent
military base there, on which the strategic B-52 bombers were stationed and
still are today.
The base was of great strategic importance, especially in the Korean and Vietnam
wars. But also during the Iraq wars, B-52 bombers took off from here.
In August 2017, North Korea threatened to bombard Guam with rockets, which
were supposed to fall into the sea off the island.
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