Guam

Origins

The Chamorro people settled Guam some 3,500 years ago. Magellan reached it in 1521, and Spain colonised it from 1668, when the Jesuit Diego Luis de San Vitores founded a mission; wars and disease drastically reduced the Chamorro. In 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the cruiser USS Charleston captured the island, and Spain ceded it to the United States.

Rule and society

The US Navy governed Guam as a naval station, while the rest of the Marianas went to Germany and then Japan. Japan occupied Guam from December 1941 until American forces retook it in July 1944, an ordeal still commemorated on Liberation Day. The Organic Act of 1950 made Guamanians US citizens and created a civilian government, though they cannot vote for president.

To the present

Guam elected its first governor, Carlos Camacho, in 1970. It remains an unincorporated territory of the United States, dependent on military bases such as Andersen Air Force Base and on tourism, with continuing debate over its political status.