The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an insular area and
commonwealth of the United States consisting of 14 islands in the north western
Pacific Ocean. The CNMI includes the 14 northernmost islands in the Mariana
Archipelago except the southernmost island of the chain, Guam, which is a
separate U.S. territory. The CNMI and Guam are the westernmost point (in terms
of jurisdiction) and territory of the United States.
The Islands have a landmass of 475,26 km² and a population
of 53.883 people (census 2010) The vast majority of the population resides on
Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. The other islands of the Northern Marianas are
sparsely inhabited. The administrative center is Capitol Hill, a village in north
western Saipan. However, most publications consider Saipan to be the capital
because the island is governed as a single municipality.
The first people of the Mariana Islands immigrated at
some point between 4000 BC and 2000 BC from Southeast Asia. The ancient people
of the Marianas raised colonnades of megalithic capped pillars called latte
stones upon which they built their homes. The first European explorer of the
area, the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, arrived in 1521. He landed
on Guam, the southernmost island of the Marianas, and claimed the archipelago
for Spain. Three days after he had been welcomed on his arrival, Magellan fled
the archipelago. Spain regarded the islands as annexed and later made them part
of the Spanish East Indies (1565). In 1734, the Spanish built a royal palace in
Guam for the governor of the islands. Guam operated as an important stopover
between Manila and Mexico for galleons carrying gold between the Philippines
and Spain. Some galleons sunk in Guam remain.
In 1668, Father Diego Luis de San Vitores renamed the
islands Las Marianas in honour of his patroness the Spanish regent Mariana of
Austria (1634–1696), widow of Felipe IV (reigned 1621-1655). Following its loss
during the Spanish-American War of 1898, Spain ceded Guam to the United States
and sold the remainder of the Marianas (the Northern Marianas), along with the
Caroline Islands, to Germany under the German-Spanish Treaty of 1899. Germany
administered the islands as part of its colony of German New Guinea and did
little in terms of development.
Early in World War I, Japan declared war on Germany
and invaded the Northern Marianas. In 1919, the League of Nations awarded all
of Germany's islands in the Pacific Ocean located north of the Equator,
including the Northern Marianas, under mandate to Japan. Under this
arrangement, the Japanese thus administered the Northern Marianas as part of
the South Pacific Mandate. During the Japanese period, sugar cane became the
main industry of the islands. Garapan on Saipan was developed as a regional
capital.
On 8 December 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl
Harbour, Japanese forces from the Marianas launched an invasion of Guam. On 15 June
1944, the United States military invaded the Mariana Islands, starting the
Battle of Saipan, which ended on 9 July.
After Japan's defeat in World War II, the Northern
Marianas were administered by the United States as part of the United Nations
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which gave responsibility for defence
and foreign affairs to the United States. Negotiations for commonwealth status
began in 1972 and a covenant to establish a commonwealth in political union
with the United States was approved in a 1975 referendum. A new government and
constitution partially came into effect in on 9 January 1978. The United
Nations approved this arrangement pursuant to Security Council Resolution 683.
The Northern Mariana Islands came under U.S. sovereignty on 4 November 1986.
The Northern Mariana Islands does not have voting
representation in the United States Congress, but, since 2009, has been
represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by a delegate who may
participate in debate but may not vote on the floor. The commonwealth has no
representation in the U.S. Senate.
The Northern Mariana Islands do not issue their own
stamps, but use the stamps of the United States. There are only two stamps
dedicated to the Islands, one to commemorate the relation between the USA and
the Islands issued on 4 November 1993 and one in the Flags of our Nation series
from 11 August 2011. I bought some of these on internet and sent my envelope to
the post office on Saipan. It arrived with a nice, but light, postmark.
Date sent: 2 May 2017
Date postmark: 23 May 2017
Date received: 7 June 2017
Number of days: 36
Envelope in collection: 148
