Guam
The flag of Guam can only be flown with the Stars and Stripes. The territory's seal depicts a beach, a coconut palm, and a canoe.
Largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands in the West Pacific, an unincorporated territory of the USA; it lies between the Philippine Sea and the southwest Pacific Ocean, some 1,540 km/960 mi north of the Equator; length 50 km/30 mi, width 6–19 km/4–12 mi; area 549 sq km/212 sq mi; population (2001 est) 158,000. The main towns are Hagåẗa (capital), Apra (port), and Tamuning. Tourism is important to the island's economy, as are oil refining, textile manufacture, fishing, and the cultivation of coconuts, sugar cane, and tropical fruits and vegetables, especially sweet potatoes. Guam is the site of major US army, air, and naval bases, and expenditure by the US government on these facilities is also a mainstay of the economy. The land is largely limestone plateau in the north and volcanic in the south, with much jungle.
History
Guam was claimed by Ferdinand Magellan for Spain in 1521 and used primarily as a commercial port. The indigenous population of Chamorros dwindled from 80,000 in 1668 to 1,500 in 1783, as a result of infectious disease and brutality by the Spanish colonizers. It was captured by the USA in 1898 in the Spanish–American War. It achieved full US citizenship and autonomy from 1950. A referendum in 1987 favoured the status of a commonwealth, in association with the USA. In 1998, the commonwealth proposals were still awaiting debate in the US Congress.
| Guam was occupied by Japan as an air and naval base 1941–44. The July 1944 battle in which Americans recaptured the island caused the destruction of Hagåẗa and heavy damage elsewhere. Guam's economy from 1944 depended on its military importance – it became the headquarters of the US Pacific Strategic Air Command in 1954 and the central command for all US naval operations in the West Pacific. Andersen Air Force Base, in the northeast, was a major Strategic Air Command site from 1954 through the 1980s; during the Vietnam War it was the centre of an island boom. The navy maintains an air station at Hagåẗa and a large base at Apra Harbour, and there are other military installations throughout. In the 1990s, with the end of the Cold War, the economy began to tilt toward tourism, especially from Japan. |
| The island is governed by a popularly elected governor (the Democrat Carl Gutierrez from 1995) and a single-chamber legislature. |
| The predominant religion is Roman Catholic. The people are of mixed Micronesian-Filipino-European descent, and languages spoken are English and Chamorro (a Malay-Polynesian dialect). The currency is the US dollar. |
)
