gwäm, the largest, most populous, and southernmost of the Mariana Islands (see also Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States (2000 pop. 154,805), 209 sq mi (541 sq km), W Pacific. The southern part of the island is mountainous, rising on Mt. Lamlam to 1,332 ft (406 m). Agaña, on the central W coast, is the seat of government, and Apra Harbor, a large U.S. naval base, is nearby. Andersen Air Force Base is in the north. The interior of the island is dense jungle; most of the villages are on the coast.

Guamanians are U.S. citizens but cannot vote in U.S. elections. Guam's permanent inhabitants are predominantly of native Chamorro stock (37%) or Filipino descent (26%); the rest of the population mainly consists of roughly equal numbers of other Pacific Islanders, Caucasians, and other persons of Asian descent. The people are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and speak English, Chamorro, and Japanese; English and Chamorro are official languages. Efforts to preserve the Chamorro language began in the 1990s. Some one fourth of the population consists of U.S. military personnel and their dependents.

Providing goods and services for the huge U.S. bases is the major industry. Tourism, especially from Japan, is also important. Most inhabitants practice subsistence farming, but large-scale agriculture is no longer possible because military installations occupy so much land. Local leaders began pressing for access to military land in the 1990s, and several facilities have been turned over.

Visited in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan, Guam belonged to Spain until 1898, when it was taken by the United States in the Spanish-American War. From 1917 to 1950, Guam, under the Dept. of the Navy, was governed by a naval officer who was advised by a local congress. The Organic Act of 1950 transferred jurisdiction to the Dept. of the Interior and provided for a governor, appointed every four years by the U.S. president, and a 21-member unicameral legislature elected biennially by residents. Beginning in 1970 the governor has been elected every four years.

Guam was captured by Japan in 1941, was retaken by U.S. forces in 1944, and became a major base for assaults on the Japanese mainland. During the Vietnam War in the 1960s Guam was an important base for air assaults, and the island's military installations remain strategically important to the United States. In 1987 Guamanians voted to seek commonwealth status from the United States. Guam was devastated by typhoons in 1976 and 1992 and suffered a severe earthquake in 1993. Felix Camacho was elected governor in 2002, succeeding Carl T. C. Gutierrez.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

-20307-