Guam

Guam , Chamorro Guåhan, officially Territory of Guam, the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Mariana Islands (see also Northern Mariana Islands ), an unincorporated territory of the United States (2005 est. pop. 168,000), 209 sq mi (541 sq km), W Pacific. The southern part of the island is mountainous, rising on Mt. Lamlam to 1,332 ft (406 m). The capital, Hagåtña (Agaña), on the central W coast, is the seat of government, and Apra Harbor, a large U.S. naval base, is nearby. Andersen Air Force Base is in the north. The interior of the island is dense jungle; most of the villages are on the coast.

Guamanians are U.S. citizens but cannot vote in U.S. elections. Guam's permanent inhabitants are predominantly of native Chamorro stock (37%) or Filipino descent (26%); the rest of the population mainly consists of other Pacific Islanders, Caucasians, and other persons of Asian descent. The people are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. English, Chamorro, and Philippine languages are the main languages; efforts to preserve the Chamorro language began in the 1990s. Some one fourth of the population consists of U.S. military personnel and their dependents.

Providing goods and services for the huge U.S. bases is the major industry. Tourism, especially from Japan, is also important, and the territorial government is a significant employer. There is some light industry, and Guam is an important transshipment center for Micronesia and other Pacific islands. Some inhabitants practice subsistence farming, but large-scale agriculture is no longer possible because military installations occupy so much land. Local leaders began pressing for access to military land in the 1990s, and several facilities have been turned over.

Guam is governed under the 1950 Organic Act of Guam. The president of the United States is the head of state. The government is headed by a governor, who is popularly elected for a four-year term and is eligible for a second term. Members of the unicameral 15-seat Legislature are popularly elected for two-year terms.

Human artifacts dating from c.1500 BC have been found on Guam, but the first settlement may have occurred as much as 500 or more years earlier. Visited in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan , Guam was claimed and controlled by Spain until 1898, when it was taken by the United States in the Spanish-American War . After 1917, Guam, under the Dept. of the Navy, was governed by a naval officer who was advised by a local congress. Guam was captured by Japan in 1941, was retaken by U.S. forces in 1944, and became a major base for assaults on the Japanese mainland.

The Organic Act of 1950 transferred jurisdiction to the Dept. of the Interior. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s Guam was an important base for air assaults, and the island's military installations remain strategically important to the United States. In 1969 voters rejected unification with the Northern Marianas. Since 1970 the governor has been popularly elected. Guamanians voted in 1987 to seek commonwealth status from the United States. Guam was devastated by typhoons in 1976 and 1992 and suffered a severe earthquake in 1993. Felix Camacho was elected governor in 2002, succeeding Carl T. C. Gutierrez; he was reelected in 2006.

Guam Southernmost and largest of the Mariana Islands in the w Pacific Ocean; the capital is Agaña. An unincorporated US territory, Ferdinand Magellan discovered Guam in 1521. Spain ceded the island to the USA in 1898. Guam was the first US territory to be occupied by the Japanese during World War II. Industries: oil refining, palm oil, fish products. Area: 541sq km (209sq mi). Pop (2000) 128,200.

Guam an island in the western Pacific that was awarded to the United States after the Spanish-American War in 1898 and has had military significance since that time. It was governed by the Navy until 1950 and is still the home of a large U.S. naval station. The Japanese invaded and occupied Guam for thirty months starting in December 1941. It was liberated in July 1944. Restitution to the native Chamorros was made in an act of Congress in 1995 for the atrocities they had endured during the Japanese occupation.