What is Guam

City of Guam | Geography, Sights & Histories

Guam, an uncorporated area of the United States in the Pacific, the biggest, most populated and most southerly of the Mariana Islands." The most important colonies are Dededo in the northeast of the isle, Machanao in the northeast and Apotgan on the northcoast. It is sharp subdivided into a northerly calcareous plain with a general height of about 150 meters and a higher area of vulcanic hill to the souther.

It is 406 meters high on Mount Lamlam in the SW. It has a comfortable subtropical weather that is mitigated by the northeastern Tradewind and the northern sea currents flowing across the Pacific Sea to the northwest. There are also many kinds of sea creatures and bugs. In the 1940s, however, the native birds in Guam were destroyed by the adventitious importation of the bay snakes, an invasive New Guinea plant.

Almost a third of the population is Asian, especially Filipinos and Koreans, and there is a small majority of Europeans. Approximately three quarters of the population are Roman-Catholic, one quaver Roman-Catholic. Guam's emergence as an important US army stronghold after the Second World War led to far-reaching changes in the island's farming structures.

Increasingly, foods were exported at the cost of domestic production, and Guam now import most of its foods. US troops are present in several Guam missions. The Andersen AFB and its extensions are situated at the north end of the isle. U.S. Navy installations around the islands includes a marine aerial facility, a marine basis with a vessel maintenance shipyard, communication centers and a clinic.

The work in the army installations has taken many island inhabitants away from their earlier life of subsistence farming and fisheries. There is an intercontinental airfield connecting Guam with other Pacific Isles, Asia, Hawaii and the United States. It is a duty-free harbour and this statute has been attracting a number of small production firms from Asian lands and has also led to some sort of infiltration.

A non-incorporated US jurisdiction ruled under the Organic Act of Guam, Guam was adopted by the US Congress and ratified by the US presidential assembly on August 1, 1950. The Guamese also elect a US House of Representatives representative for a two-year period of office; this representative has a restricted right to cast votes, which precludes the possibility of casting votes on the definitive adoption of laws.

In 1982, the Guam nation chose to continue a similar to Northern Mariana Congregation. and the Supreme Tribunal of Appeal is the Supreme Tribunal of Guam. A Guam District Tribunal is also in place, whose magistrate is nominated by the US Presidential Council for a eight-year period.

The Superior Court of Guam, for penal and civilian matters, and the Road, Youth and Small Damage Cases. Appeal may be lodged with the U.S. Court of Apeals for the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court. Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Guam is the Guam City Council, which makes policy and tax policy advice and serves as a link between the three governmental bodies, the armed forces and the US state.

Opened in 1952, the University of Guam is a four-year institute that also offers Master's degrees. Institutions comprise state, privately owned and hosted medical centers and municipal institutions. Lifespan for men and females is similar to that in the USA. And Guam is rich in culture, with significant populations of China, Japan, the Philippines, Korea and other Asia, in excess of its tribal and continental populations.

The Micronesia Major is the biggest commercial center on the islands and also acts as a culture and leisure center with cinemas and an outdoor fair. Commemorating the patrons were great societal and spiritual feasts of the year for every town, bringing together local residents from many parts of the Isle.

In Guam, fiestas are still practiced. But with the economical developments and the growing numbers of foreign connections there were changes in Guamanian society and institution. For most groups, the large familiy is the most important form of society in Guam, although many of the younger members are traveling and living in the United States.

Guam's popular art and crafts have experienced a renaissance since the end of the twentieth  century. Hagåtña's Guam Museum shows works by Pacific art. Guam University also supports cultural and artistic activities in the region. It celebrates US public festivals, as well as some important domestic ones such as Discovery Day on March 6, commemorating the 1521 advent of Ferdinand Magellan.

Guam has a newspaper circulation of every day and every six months, as well as periodicals every three months and a number of TV and R.V. channels broadcasting regional and regional reports and newscasts. Guam, like the other Mariana Islands, was populated in the second trimester of the second millenium B.C. by an Indonesian-Philippine population. In 1521 Ferdinand Magellan probably ended up in Guam.

It was formally occupied by Spain in 1565, but it was not attempted until the second half of the seventeenth cent. Taifunas in 1671 and 1693 resulted in further devastation and deaths. The Guam remains property of Spain until 1898, when the US battleship Charleston invaded the port of Apra and bombed the old fortress.

In 1899, Spain bought the other Mariana Isles and gave them to Germany. Until 1950 (with the exception of the Japanese occupying the area during World War II), the Mayor of the Isle was a navy official nominated by the US Pres.

Throughout World War II, the Japanese arrived shortly after the Pearl Harbor raid on Guam and invaded the country on December 12, 1941. The Allies recaptured Guam by August 10, 1944. It became a U.S. Navy area ( "territory") in 1950, managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

A number of posts within this unit have managed Guam; the Insular Affairs Office has been in charge since 1995. The country continues to be home to important US navies and military installations; about a third of Guam is held by the US military. During the 1970s, Guam began to move towards self-governance.

Guam was the first democratically-reelected candidate for the post of a non-voting representative to the US House of Representatives in 1972. The US Senate granted Guam the right to approve a regional charter in 1978. Guam was hit by another cyclone in 2002, which devastated the country and displaced tens of millions of people.

The United States and Japan reached a master treaty in 2006 to move some 8,000 U.S. Marines and their families from Okinawa to Guam. While the multi-billion US dollars package was expected to be finalized by 2014, it quickly came to a halt in the face of issues relating to the environment impacts of the move and the Department of Defense's reflections on the attitude of US forces in the Pacific.

In 2015, a Swiss magistrate also passed a bill banning same-sex marriages on the isle. This made Guam the first US jurisdiction to recognise same-sex marriages.