Guam/Mariana Islands: The Micronesian State
"Where America's Day Begins"
Guam + Mariana Islands Overview
Total Population: All islands - 213,000, Guam - 159,000
Largest City: Dededo, GU / Capital City: Hagåtña, GU
Statehood History
The Mariana Islands are an archipelago of fifteen mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the North Pacific Ocean. The submerged mountain range spans over 1,500 miles between Japan and Indonesia. Only the four southernmost islands are known to have permanent residents, with Guam holding more than two-thirds of the entire archipelago’s population. The largest ethnic group on the islands are the indigenous Chamarro people, (roughly 40% of the total population) and the second largest group being those descending from Asia (roughly 30% of the total population). If admitted as a single state the Mariana Islands would have the smallest proportion of White Americans of any state at only 7%.
Before the United States took control of the islands, starting with Guam in 1898, Spain governed the islands for nearly four centuries. Navigator Ferdinand Magellan first discovered the island for the Kingdom of Spain in 1521. For much of the century following discovery by Spain, the islands were used as re-provisioning stops for ships traveling between the Americas and the Philippines. Spanish colonization didn’t formally begin until 1668 with the establishment of the first Catholic church on the islands.
The change in territorial control from Spain to the United States was brought on by Spanish defeat in the Spanish-American War. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Guam was officially transferred to the United States while the rest of the Mariana Islands were sold to Germany (i.e. deemed the Northern Mariana Islands). German control only lasted 20 years as Japan invaded the islands early during World War I. Japan then controlled the Northern Mariana Islands until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor spurred the United States to enter the Pacific theater of WWII. Within three years, the United States captured the Northern Mariana Islands from Japan and was designated the trustee for the islands’ defense and foreign affairs by the United Nations.
In the postwar period, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands considered several public referendums that would have unified the islands into a single territory. None of these were ever successful, therefore Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are considered two separate territories by the United States government. The Northern Mariana Islands are officially a commonwealth with its own constitution and government established in 1978. Guam has been an official US territory since the Guam Organic Act of 1950. Several movements to establish Guam as a commonwealth have been mounted throughout the 1980s and 90s but none have been successful. Since neither territories are officially recognized as states, residents of neither Guam nor the Northern Mariana Islands have voting privileges in federal government. While all residents are recognized as American citizens they receive no vote in presidential elections, no representation in the Senate and can only send non-voting representatives to the House. As a result, both territories have fought for statehood at various times to provide better representation for their residents.
Since the Northern Mariana Islands is a commonwealth that allows a higher-degree of self-governance, Guam has tended to go it alone on statehood movements as its territory status means even less-self governance for the island. In as recent as 2016, Guam was considering putting decolonization to a vote, asking residents if they wished to pursue statehood, independence from the United States or “free association”. (A Freely Associated State (FAS) is an independent nation that has signed a comprehensive agreement with the United States called a Compact of Free Association (COFA) that governs diplomatic, economic, and military relations with the United States.) The question never made it onto the ballot due to an attempt at only allowing native residents a vote on the question, a requirement that the courts found unconstitutional. In the face of Guam’s struggles for statehood, the United Nations has openly supported the territory’s self-governance and in July 2020 Guam joined the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. As it stands, Guam’s outlook for statehood continues to look bleak as it remains incredibly unlikely that a statehood measure would pass through Congress, even if Guam was able to hold a vote and prove public support.