Guam ( ; Chamorro: lang: Guåhån), officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized, unincorporated insular area of the United States. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government."U.S. Territories." ''DOI Office of Insular Affairs. February 9, 2007. The island's capital is Hagåtña (formerly Agana). Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands.

The Chamorros, Guam's indigenous inhabitants, first populated the island approximately 4,000 years ago. The island has a long history of European colonialism beginning in 1668 with the arrival of Spanish settlers including Padre San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. The island was taken over from Spain by the United States during the Spanish American War in 1898. As the largest island in Micronesia and the only American-held island in the region before World War II, Guam was occupied by the Japanese in December 1941, and was subject to fierce fighting when American troops recaptured the island in July 1944. Today, Guam's economy is mainly supported by tourism (primarily from Japan) and United States military bases.

History

main: History of Guam

It is believed that Guam was first discovered by seafaring people who migrated from southeastern Indonesia around 2000 B.C. Most of what is known about Pre-Contact ("Ancient") Chamorros comes from legends and myths, archaeological evidence, Jesuit missionary accounts, and observations from visiting scientists like Otto von Kotzebue and Louis de Freycinet.

When Europeans first arrived on Guam, Chamorro society roughly fell into three classes: matua (upper class), achaot (middle class), and mana'chang (lower class). The matua were located in the coastal villages, which meant they had the best access to fishing grounds while the mana'chang were located in the interior of the island. Matua and mana'chang rarely communicated with each other, and matua often used achaot as a go-between. There were also "makana" (shamans), skilled in healing and medicine. Belief in spirits of ancient Chamorros called Taotao Mona still persists as a remnant of pre-European society. Early European explorers noted the Chamorros' fast sailing vessels used for trading with other islands of Micronesia.

Guam—the only European outpost in the Pacific Ocean beyond the Philippines, the regular stopping-place between Mexico and Manila from 1565 to 1815, and (since Philippine independence) the farthest outpost of actual United States territory in the Pacific—is the biggest single segment of Micronesia, the largest island between Kyushu and New Guinea, between the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands.