Guam American Territory
American Territory GuamGuam, the tropical Micronesian island in the western Pacific, southwest of Rota, an island of the northern Mariana Islands.
Nordkorea threatens Guam: US Territory Facts
Recently, the DPRK has issued a declaration that it is "considering" the possibility of a strikes in the US territory of Guam. It is the first for many Americans that Guam, a small isle in the remotest parts of the western Pacific, has come into their minds. Where is Guam, how did the United States buy it and why would N Korea want to invade it?
Here are 10 facts about the small micronean isle. The city is situated in an area of the Pacific Ocean that could be described as "in the midst of nowhere". "It is about 1,500 kilometres (2,490 kilometres) from the Philippines and about 1,600 kilometres (2,600 km) from Japan.
It' part of the 800 km long vulcanic island of Mariana Island, according to Destiny's Landfall: One Story of Guam" (University of Hawaii Press, 2011). His closest neighbour within the Mariana Island is about 436 km away. The biggest of the 15 Mariana isles.
According to the World Bank, the number of inhabitants was 162,000 in 2016. It is known for its sandy beach and the Mariana Rift, the world' s lowest one. This archipelago was created around 60 million years ago along a subsurface in which one subterranean oceanic slab is submerged under another.
Over the course of these thousands of years, however, it has passed the wave several occasions and has created tens of thousands of limestone elves and coral elves from the skeleton of molluscs and other calcium-rich marine life, says Destiny's Landfall. "The University of Guam also hosts some rare fish, such as the coco, the redfish and the serianthes trees.
Throughout the Second World War, some kind of snake of brown trees somehow slipped onto the isle. Chamorro tribe, whose forebe came from Southeast Asia, has been occupying the archipelago for about 4,000 years. "Chamorro ", the name with which the Spanish identified the Spanish at their first meeting, is derived from a variation of the name of the native populace for their high-ranking members, the Camorri, according to "Destiny's Landfall".
" Guam's native population is austrone. According to "Destiny's Landfall", language hints indicate that they are most intimately related to the population in Taiwan and the Philippines. "However, in the years of Colonization, the Chamorro intermingled with Spanish, German, Philippine, American and many other nationals.
The Europeans first came into touch with the Pacific region in 1521, when the discoverer Ferdinand Magellan of Portugal entered the Isle. The Magellan had been looking for the Moluccan herbs. Both he and his men were on poorly equipped vessels and knew too little about the ocean's price to catch for their food, so they lived on rivals, sawnwood and oxskin rig, so "Destiny's Landfall".
" By the time the discoverers landed on Guam, they were encircled by the smooth and agile Chamorro native ships, which began to take objects from Portugese ships. They burnt several towns and proases and killed eight more Chamorro before taking up more provisions and setting off again, so "Destiny's Landfall".
" Most of the last few hundred years Guam was mobilized by a procession of different overseas forces, from Spain, Germany and Japan to the United States. The permanent dominance of the army is probably partly due to the uniqueness of the area. It' s the biggest land mass in Micronesia and the highest islet nearby, and it also has several secure harbours and several airfields, making it ideal for a strategic airbase.
It is also at the crossroads of the Passat wind and the Eq, which means that for hundreds of years the yachtsmen were able to use the predominant wind and tides to replenish their populations or take a rest on their way to other targets, such as Destiny's Landfall. "America first conquered Guam during the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Originally it was used as a waypoint to the Philippines, but its importance in terms of the army increased as it became the most important communications conduit for a cable line linking the continental United States with Hawaii and the Philippines, as Destiny's Landfall put it. "Japan was the dominating naval force in the Pacific at the inception of the war and quickly expanded its leverage to develop more natural assets.
Saipan was invaded by Japan within the Mariana Islands, only 100 nautical mile ("161 km") away, according to "Guam 1941 & 1944": US rulers were worried about the potential for conflict with Japan, and some army rulers wanted to strengthen the Guam militarys fortresses, which would be a vital liaison in their effort to keep the Philippines.
Congress's assistance was limited, however, and intensive naval strongholds never existed. In 1907, America introduced Jim Crow legislation on the Isle and separated natives from American soldiers in relation to accommodation and education. In 1909 Guam began using the American dollar and also began to observe all the United States public holidays around this hour.
However, under American domination, the locals slowly experienced an improvement in their standards of livelihood, with fewer illnesses and greater education prospects, according to Destiny's Landfall. "In those days, about 700 persons were defending the archipelago, which had relatively few other fortresses. Following a symbolic opposition, the American armed services gave up.
They immediately re-named the Isle and held it for another two and a half years. In the next few years, the American armed services developed a sophisticated multi-level conquest map for the Pacific Ocean, which included Guam. Guam's reconquest was part of a chain of measures aimed at reconquering South Pacific Isles from the Japan Armed Services, which included the reconquest of Saipan and Tinian on the Mariana Peninsula on their way to the Philippines.
In the second battle of Guam, which took about two month and ended in August 1944, the American army withdrew the Isle of Guam from the armed services of Japan. 1950 President Harry Truman ratified the Guam Organic Act of 1950, which gives the islanders a degree of self-government with their own chosen governors, the judiciary and legislative system and a bill (which is leaner than the one granted to Americans on the continent, but provides for privileges such as the division of churches and states).
But many Guamese are still shying away from this intermediate state. While Guam is currently an uncorporated territory, it could theoretically opt for full citizenship or full supremacy. However, in several referendums over the years, the Guamese have repeatedly voiced in favour of maintaining the statute-que, with some improvement.
Why, then, did Korea choose Guam as the likely place of aggression? Apart from the fact that Guam has been a major stategic turntable for hundreds of years, it has the benefit of being able to rapidly expand its defence capabilities for US coalition partners (and NK enemies) such as South Korea and Japan. Home to approximately 6,000 soldiers and several large naval bases, Guam includes Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam, and is home to a US U-boat naval target area.
Guam is also home to the THAAD (High Mountain Defence Battery) which was developed to launch rockets when they re-enter the Earth's surface. Sentinel, an intern at Science News, Wired.com and Milwaukee Journal, has authored for the Center for Investigative Reporting, Scientific American and ScienceNow.
Ms. Beyreuther holds a Master's in Bio-Engineering from the University of Washington and a Diploma in Scientific Literature from the University of California Santa Cruz.