How the residents of the Islands of Thieves became U.S. citizens
In business, sometimes the path from a startup to a successful project is thorny and winding; there may be changes in the concept, in management, in the name of the product before it reaches the customer in its final form.
And so it is in the world around us, in its history.....
The annals of geographical discoveries know many interesting facts that influenced the names and destinies of the indigenous people. In this line, the history of the Mariana Islands, the very area where the Mariana Trench is known to everyone, is very interesting.
The famous explorer Fernan Magellan discovered these islands during his expedition back in 1521. The journey across the Pacific Ocean was difficult, his crew was very tired by the time they arrived on land, and the locals took advantage of this by taking some items from Magellan's ships. The annoyed discoverer, because of this unpleasant moment, gave the islands the name Las Islas de los Ladrones, which translates as “Islands of Thieves”.
For almost 150 years the islands were known by this ringing combination until June 4, 1668, when Spanish Queen Maria Anna of Austria, under whose jurisdiction the territory was then, signed a decree renaming the “Islands of Thieves” to “Las Marianas”.
In 1898, after the Spanish-American War, the southern part of the islands passed to the United States, then after World War I they were administered by Japan, and after World War II, the United Nations placed the islands under U.S. administration.
In 1978, the Northern Mariana Islands and the island of Guam became considered unincorporated organized territories of the United States. In 1986, all islanders were granted U.S. citizenship status.
This is how the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Islands of Thieves, located 11,300 kilometers from the U.S. became citizens of this country.
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