Mariana Islands

From Freepedia

The Mariana Islands (sometimes called The Marianas; up to the early 20th century sometimes called the Islas de los Ladrones or Islands of Thieves) are a group of islands made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the 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). Guam is a US territory, and the rest of the islands (including the main inhabited islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota) comprise the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

The first European to discover the island group was Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. In 1667 Spain formally claimed them, and named them after Spanish Queen Mariana of Austria.

Following the Spanish-American War, Spain ceded Guam to the United States, and sold the northern remainder to Germany. After World War I the former German islands were entrusted by the League of Nations to the control of Japan.

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 bombed Nagasaki) took off from Tinian’s “North Field.”