How did Guam, occupied by Spain for 400 years, fall into the hands of the United States?

Guam is the largest island at the southern tip of Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, with an area of 549 square kilometers and a population of less than 6.5438+0.8 million. It is one of the unincorporated territories of the United States and the core of the second-line base of the US military in the Pacific region. It has always occupied a very important position in the American military base system in the western Pacific. During the Korean War and the Vietnam War, Guam played an important role as an important strategic base for sea and air.

However, Guam is about 10,000 kilometers from the mainland of the United States. How can Guam, so far away from the mountain, become the territory of the United States? In fact, it did not belong to the United States at first, and Guam in history was occupied by foreign powers and changed hands several times. So how did Guam change hands several times? What kind of struggle has happened between great powers? How did it eventually become American territory?

Spanish occupation

152 1 year, Portuguese navigator Magellan led an expedition to sail around the world for Spain. After staying in Guam for several months, he set foot on his way back to Spain, but during the voyage, he came to the Philippines because of the northerly channel. Just in time for the infighting in the Philippines, Magellan wanted to use his contradictions to help indigenous puppets control the Philippines, so he took part in the local infighting struggle, which led to his own death, not only failing to achieve the expected goal, but also taking his own life.

After Magellan's death, the helmsman led everyone around the world. Although the journey home was difficult and suffered heavy losses, only one ship returned to Spain, but it also mastered the geographical knowledge of sea routes and ports of call, accumulated rich experience in sailing around the world, and proved in practice that sailing from Europe to the west and east is not a myth.

A few years later, Spain's ambitious King Philip II came to power. He believes that the geographical position of the Philippines is very important, which is an important foothold for Spanish colonies to "expand from America to Asia" and an outpost for Spain to "expand its power to other parts of the Far East". He sent Li Yashi, who had rich sailing experience, to lead an expedition to conquer the Philippines. After successively winning Cebu Island and Luzon Island, the Lebanese expedition finally achieved colonial rule over the Philippines.

After the occupation of the Philippines, in order to seize the wealth of the East and monopolize the trade between Mexico, a Spanish colony, and the Philippines, Spain opened a galleon trade route here. In order to ensure the safety of trade routes, they stopped at several supply points on the way, so they came up with the idea of Guam east of the Philippines. Therefore, from 1565, when Spain invaded Guam, to the beginning of17th century, the indigenous Chamorros in Guam were subjected to cruel and bloody rule, and the indigenous Chamorros on the island were massacred, which reduced their population from the initial 65,438+million to 5,000, almost to the point of genocide.

Change hands for the first time

During the 400 years when the Spanish Empire ruled Guam, there was basically no colonial development. In addition, due to the distance from the mountain, inconvenient transportation, blocked information and high dispersion, management is very difficult. Therefore, Spain is basically laissez-faire for many overseas territories. During this period, Spain vigorously pursued self-destructive economic policies and religious persecution policies, which seriously damaged the economy, and the brutal slaughter of pagans caused a lot of labor losses, so the aura of "the sun never sets on the empire" has begun to fade and gradually lost its former style.

But after the civil war, the American economy developed rapidly and became the most developed country at that time. With the continuous expansion of domestic production capacity, it can't wait to open up new markets through colonial expansion.

In this way, by the end of 19, Cuba and the Philippines under the control of Spain were the first things that made the United States salivate. The United States declared war on Spain under the pretext of "Maine", which opened the prelude to the Spanish-American war, thus opening the mode of seizing Pacific hegemony.

The situation was quite favorable to the United States at that time. First of all, Cuba and the Philippines tried to get rid of Spanish colonial rule and carry out armed struggle. A large number of Spanish troops are trying their best to deal with it. Second, the weapons and equipment of the two countries are very different. The United States has a powerful fleet known as the third in the world, while Spain has only some old wooden-shell warships. So the winner of this war speaks for itself.

The day after the declaration of war, the United States launched an attack on the Spanish fleet in the Philippines. Seven hours later, the Spanish fleet was beaten to the ground and Spain had to surrender. In less than two months of the Spanish-American War, the United States easily captured Spain's original colonies-Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and Guam in the western Pacific.

There was also a very funny scene when attacking Guam. Due to Spain's long-term neglect of Guam, the island's armaments slackened, and even a war broke out in the Western-American region. When the American cruiser opened fire on the Spanish fortress on Guam, the garrison leader mistakenly thought that it was a friendly salute fired by the US military. Out of courtesy, he specially brought two small guns to the port to prepare gifts. Therefore, the United States easily got Guam.

After the United States occupied Guam, Guam was set as a naval base, and a colonial government and naval shipyard were established on the island to meet the supply, repair and operation of the future naval fleet. It also built fortifications, equipped with coastal defense guns, and deployed a seaplane unit to stay in Guam for a long time.

However, after World War I, in order to reduce the military expenditure burden caused by the naval arms race in the past, the five naval powers of the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Japan signed the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922. In this naval meeting, it was unanimously agreed to terminate the construction plans of large battleships in various countries, and the issue of expanding to the western Pacific was also discussed. Neither the United States nor Japan agrees to expand to the western Pacific. Therefore, in the following years, the US military not only failed to expand its naval base, but also dismantled Guam's coastal defense guns and withdrew its seaplane troops.

However, the US Navy has always regarded Guam's defense as the most important, and has made constant efforts and requests, but it has been rejected due to untimely reasons. Later, Guam's defense was not taken seriously, and no new fortifications were built. The navy has no choice but to withdraw from Guam and destroy military facilities to prevent them from being used by enemy countries.

Second change of hands

As one of the naval powers, Japan invaded China after the victory of the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, and gradually embarked on the road of confrontation with Britain and the United States, and determined the southward policy of seizing resources in Southeast Asia and South Asia. This has seriously damaged the interests of the United States in the Far East and led to the United States' sanctions against Japan. However, in order to realize the strategy of going south, Japan released a signal of peace to the United States, and at the same time attacked the "Pearl Harbor", the base of the American Pacific Fleet that threatened its going south.

In fact, before the outbreak of the Pacific War, Japan had paid attention to Guam and often sent civilian ships into Guam waters for approaching reconnaissance. To this end, the US military also banned all unauthorized foreign warships and merchant ships from entering. Not long after, the Japanese camera reconnaissance plane flew over Guam. In anticipation of Japan's possible attack on Guam, the United States began to evacuate naval families and construction workers urgently and issued a war warning. As a result, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they aimed their fire at Guam Naval Base.

At that time, the United States had only 400 troops stationed in Guam, and the main warships were stationed in the Philippines for replenishment. Although volunteers have also been formed, their armed equipment is too poor and their combat effectiveness is weak, so they are no match for Japan at all. Moreover, it is isolated and helpless, and it declares surrender without effective resistance. At this point Guam entered the cruel rule of the Japanese army for two and a half years.

After the beginning of the Pacific War, the allies led by Britain and the United States made long-term plans for occupying the Pacific Ocean. In order to recapture Guam, the United States has formulated a central Pacific operational plan aimed at capturing Saipan, Tianning Island and Guam. After the capture of Saipan, the US military immediately concentrated its firepower on Guam. The air raid destroyed all enemy planes on Guam and cleared the landing obstacles for the Marines. The American troops landing in Guam annihilated the Japanese defenders and searched for the defeated troops. After Japanese officers committed suicide by caesarean section in despair and wiped out all Japanese troops, Guam returned to the hands of the United States.

Change hands for the third time

After the US military recovered Guam, the local parliament asked the United States to establish a representative government and grant American citizenship to local residents. President Truman signed the American Act 7273 on 1950, and Guam has since become an unincorporated territory of the United States.

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the United States once again focused on the Asia-Pacific region, which made Guam's strategic position even more important.

"Guam" is located in the middle and rear of the first-line base group of "First Island Chain", that is, in the middle of "Second Island Chain". It is the support behind the first island chain and an important strategic reserve base of the US military in many bases in the western Pacific. Geographical location is quite important.

As the global strategic focus of the United States shifts to the Asia-Pacific region, the military role of the base in the western Pacific region has become increasingly prominent. Guam is the key to the continued influence of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region. To this end, the United States has strengthened Guam's military construction, deployed a missile defense system, and wants to build Guam into a frontier command center for US military operations and develop it into the largest naval and air force integrated base in the western Pacific.