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Mariana Islands
*** Shopping-Tip: Mariana Islands
The '''Mariana Islands''' (also '''the Marianas'''; up to the early 20th century sometimes called ''Islas de los Ladrones'' meaning "Islands of Thieves") are an
archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the western
Pacific Ocean.
They are the southern part of a
submerged mountain range that extends 1,565 miles (2,519 km) from
Guam to near
Japan. The Marianas are the northernmost islands of a larger island group called
Micronesia. The Marianas have a total land area of 396 square miles (1026 km²) and are composed of two administrative units:
*
Guam is a
United States territory US territory
*the
Northern Mariana Islands (including the islands of
Saipan,
Tinian and
Rota (island) Rota) comprise a
Commonwealth (United States insular area) Commonwealth of the United States .
The first
European to discover the island group was
Ferdinand Magellan in
1521. In
1667 Spain formally claimed them, and named them after Spanish
monarch Queen Mariana of Austria.
Following the
Spanish-American War, Spain ceded Guam to the United States, and sold the northern remainder to
Germany.
Japan began to occupy the islands in 1914 and, after
World War I, the former German islands were entrusted by the
League of Nations to Japanese control.
The island chain saw fighting between the US and Japanese forces in
1944 during
World War II. The United States wanted to capture the islands for use as a bombing base to raid the Japanese mainland.
Once captured, the islands of
Saipan and
Tinian were used extensively by the United States military as they finally put mainland
Japan within round-trip range of American bombers. In fact, both the ''
Enola Gay'' and the ''
Bockscar'' (which dropped atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, respectively) flew their missions from Tinian’s “North Field.�
{{Oceania-geo-stub}}
Category:German colonies
Category:Archipelagoes
de:Marianen
et:Mariaanid
es:Islas Marianas
eo:Marianoj
fr:ÃŽles Mariannes
gl:Illas Marianas
he:×?×™×™ מרי×?× ×”
nl:Marianen
ja:マリアナ諸島
pl:Mariany
pt:Ilhas Marianas
ru:МарианÑ?кие оÑ?трова
simple:Mariana Islands
sk:Mariány
fi:Mariaanit
sv:Marianerna
tl:Marianas
uk:МаріанÑ?ькі оÑ?трови
zh:马里亚纳群岛
*** Shopping-Tip: Mariana Islands
