A brief history of Guam for 500 years

It is nothing new that Guam has once again become the target of foreign enemies. That was 152 1 500 years ago. Ferdinand Magellan's ship, tired and hungry, stopped on this island and began the Spanish conquest for 300 years. Now most Americans, if they know Guam, will regard it and neighboring Saipan as the battlefield of World War II. Einola Guy took off from the neighboring Tianning Island and dropped a bomb on Hiroshima. In the struggle of these external forces, the existence of indigenous people on Chamorro Island always disappears.

Most Americans may have some signs of Guam's existence and belong to the United States to some extent. Few people know how or why. Although Guam belongs to the Mariana Islands named by Spanish missionaries in 1668, it is an independent territory of the United States and the Northern Mariana Islands. Technically, the Northern Mariana Islands are a treasure. Guam is still on the United Nations 17 colonial list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, which should be decolonized according to United Nations regulations. This is "American land", but residents do not have full American citizenship and cannot vote in the presidential election. They have a non-voting delegate to Congress.

In 2002, I conducted a community study in the southern village of Inahan (Inahan in Chamorro). Pacific World Project is an indigenous geography and cultural literature and education project sponsored by Pacific Education and Learning Resources Organization. Later, I did a similar project in Tanapag village near Saipan Island in the Northern Mariana Islands, and published a paper on the history of colonialism (especially American colonialism) in this area.

I don't represent Chamorro people, but as a scholar who studies colonialism and poverty, I was directly taught by those who shared my life with me. The research of the whole community, including maps, photos and illustrations, can be found here, but in view of the current situation, it is worth mentioning that

More than 4,000 years ago, people from Southeast Asian islands, probably Taiwan Province Province, settled in Guam and Mariana Islands. Just follow the sun and you can sail from the Philippines to the Mariana Islands. In 800 AD, a clan-based society was formed, including an impressive village with a latte cafe. The house on the first floor stands on two rows of stone pillars. These houses have been used until 1668. Archaeological evidence shows that in the16th century before the arrival of Europeans, rice was planted and pottery was made. At that time, the Chamorro people had developed a complex matriarchal society, based on fishing and agriculture, plus occasional trade visits by Caroline Island residents.

Large signs attract people's attention to park units along marine corps avenue, from Hag? t？ A goes south and ends at the commander's base. U, the US Navy (Doug Herman) Spanish Navigation Map (Doug Herman) Church still dominates the scenery of the quiet Inarajan village on the south coast. Demographic changes in Guam, 1920-2000. The influx of white Americans after the war was obvious, followed by the influx of Filipinos, Asians and Pacific islanders. The population of Guam by place of birth shows an increase in the percentage of immigrants in the total population. (US census data) The Spanish influenced Chamorro (left) and Caroline (right) in Saipan. Map of Guam (Doug Herman) Mariana Islands proved to be of little use to the Spanish. Anne Perez Hattori, a Chamorro historian at the University of Guam, explained: "Magellan's view that the world was regarded as a Portuguese Catholic at the beginning of the16th century did not help this encounter. As soon as he saw the Chamorro people, he felt that they were unequal. He must think they are pagans, barbarians ... Chamorros have taken something. Therefore, Magellan called these islands "the island of thieves".

Magellan described the Chamorro people as "thieves" to prevent further invasion of Europe; Although some ships are still visiting, the Chamorro people will live in a relatively isolated state in the next century or so. In the nearby Philippines, businessmen found the entrance to the China market, attracting most seafarers from abroad.

1668, an aggressive Jesuit missionary, Father Saint Vitris, came to the Mariana Islands, and everything changed. Nervous, occasionally violent. 1672, Santovito Torres secretly gave the horses to the local chiefs against their wishes. Pang's baptism was the last straw that ended with the death of Santovito Liss.

His death was a turning point, turning this hitherto neglected Spanish outpost into a conquered Spanish colony.

After Santovito died, the military took over the mission, so it really became a war of conquest, "Hattori said. The 26-year Chamorro War in Spain followed one after another. With the spread of the disease, the population dropped sharply. By 1700, there were only 5,000 Chamorros, about 10% of their previous numbers.

It is a clan-based society, which was formed in 800 AD. This society includes villages featuring impressive latte cafes and single-storey houses built on two rows of stone pillars. (happyfish70/Flickr) Later, the Spanish began to transport Chamorros from the northern islands to Guam, where they could control them-a process that took nearly a century, because fast local canoes could catch up with bigger and slower Spanish ships and avoid being captured. Canoe culture was subsequently banned to prevent them from escaping.

As soon as they arrived in Guam, the Chamorros were relocated to newly-built villages, and each village was supervised by Spanish priests. So they began to assimilate Chamorro people. They lost their Millennium connection with land, traditions and stories. Today, Chamorro retains its traditional grammar, but 55% of its vocabulary is borrowed from Spanish.

However, indigenous culture continues in other ways in terms of values, wedding and funeral traditions, housing styles and many other forms invisible to outsiders. Life on the island needs a set of norms and practice systems developed over thousands of years. Even today, no foreign culture can replace it.

For the next century and a half, the Spanish kept a lazy rule over these islands. Before the typhoon destroyed Caroline Island, the northern islands were banned. Residents come here from the south, which is their traditional practice to find temporary shelter around 18 15. The Spanish governor placed them in Saipan, where they still lived with the Chamorro people, who were allowed to return to Saipan in the middle of the19th century.

When the United States acquired California from Mexico in 1848, the Spanish Empire was in its twilight years. In an era when the ideology of "Destiny Theory" defends American aggression and expansion,

By 1898, with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, America's ambition extended beyond the United States, and its "hatred" for Indians extended to the distant western Pacific.

Spanish troops and officials stationed in Guam were initially glad that the Charleston arrived with a tourist. They didn't know that war had been declared between the two countries, and they mistook the artillery fire for a salute. Subsequently, Spain and the United States signed the 1898 Paris Treaty.

Will be officially handed over to Guam. Guam is still American territory, but the rest of Micronesia is not. The reason can be traced back to an ironic historical and geographical accident. American negotiators neglected to ask Spain about the other parts of Mariana Islands and more parts of Micronesia, and Spain quickly sold these other islands to Germany. As a result, cracks began to appear between the Chamorro people in Guam and the Chamorro people in the Northern Mariana Islands.

Guam has been ruled by the United States until today, and the North Island has almost experienced the first division, forming the saying that "only the Japanese and Americans are the promoters of change and continuity in the region, erasing the institutions and voices of indigenous people."

No matter what happens to North Korea, it threatens to attack Guam with nuclear weapons. Let us not forget that Guam and its Mariana Islands are the cradle of indigenous people, culture, history and traditional civilization. This is not only a military base of the United States, but also a place with a long history and profound cultural heritage. The American people have struggled for democracy for more than a century, but there is still no democracy.