The Northern Mariana Islands are a territory of the United States in
the Pacific Ocean. The Mariana Islands, which at that time also included
the now independent island of Guam, were discovered by Ferdinand
Magellan in 1521 and subsequently claimed by Spain.
After defeat
in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Mariana Islands were divided:
while the island of Guam became the property of the United States, Spain
sold the other islands (the Northern Mariana Islands) to Germany; they
became part of the colony of German New Guinea. After World War I,
Germany lost the colony and the islands were held in trust by Japan
until after World War II, when the islands finally had to be ceded to
the United States.
Economically, the islands are almost entirely
dependent on American foreign aid. In the past, the area was able to
benefit from its special status as a foreign territory of the United
States because numerous protective laws such as the minimum wage or the
ban on child labor did not apply here. The American entry regulations
did not apply to these islands either, which is why numerous Chinese
immigrants came to the island as cheap labour. Since 2009 all these
regulations have been removed and the islands have failed to find a new
source of income. There is very limited tourism mainly from South Korea.
Entry requirements
Since the Northern Mariana Islands are a
foreign territory of the United States, their entry requirements also
apply here, i.e. you have to register in the ESTA system and apply for
an electronic visa there.
Citizens from 14 countries are
exceptionally allowed to enter the Northern Mariana Islands without US
immigration formalities for up to 45 days. According to the current
status (2017), this does not include a German-speaking country. Citizens
from German-speaking countries are therefore dependent on the ESTA
system until further notice.
By plane
The only international
airport is Saipan Airport (IATA: SPN). Direct connections exist mainly
to Korea (Seoul-Incheon), China (Beijing, Shanghai) and Hong Kong. There
are no connections from the USA to the Northern Mariana Islands.
By boat
There is currently no regular shipping service to the
Northern Mariana Islands.
There are flight connections between all three inhabited islands of the archipelago.
The official languages of the archipelago are English, Chamorro and Caroline. In general, you can get along with English without any problems.
Large hotel chains are mainly represented in the Northern Mariana Islands, so the price level is correspondingly high. Cheap accommodation is very rare.
There is no higher education institution on the islands.
The job market in the Northern Mariana Islands, if you can get a work permit at all, is considered very difficult because (especially since 2009) there is a large oversupply of workers.
The area consists of 16 islands stretching over 500 kilometers, of which Saipan, Tinian and Rota are the largest. In 2009, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument was designated there.
86 percent of the population speak a language other than English in private, e.g. Micronesian and Polynesian languages. Population growth is 2.8 percent per year. The Northern Mariana Islands used to be the country with the largest proportion of women in the world at 1:0.77 due to mostly female guest workers in the textile sector, but is no longer so after the collapse of the textile industry. The population has fallen in recent years, to an estimated 55,000 in 2017.
In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan was the first European to discover the
archipelago and called them Islas de Ladrones, Ladrone or Thief Islands,
because Europeans believed that the inhabitants there had stolen things
from Magellan's ships. In 1667 it was taken over by Spain and named
after the Spanish Queen Maria Anna of Austria.
After the
Spanish-American War, Spain ceded the southern part to the United States
and sold the northern part to the German Empire with the German-Spanish
Treaty of 1899, making it part of German New Guinea. In October and
November 1899, German warships arrived on the islands. German flags were
hoisted and the Germans took over the administration.
After World
War I, the Mariana Islands were placed under Japanese control by the
League of Nations. World War II saw the Battle of the Mariana Islands in
1944 when US troops captured the islands. Heavy fighting ensued at the
Battle of Saipan and the Battle of Tinian. After the Second World War,
the islands were placed under US control by the UN, which in 1978
granted them the status of a US-associated state as the Northern Mariana
Islands – except for Guam, which is a “dependent territory” under direct
US colonial rule and only has a certain internal autonomy as it serves
as a major US military base.
The Northern Mariana Islands have
been in the Commonwealth with the United States since 1975, with
internal independence since 1986.
The Northern Mariana Islands are a "unincorporated, organized
territory" of the USA with internal autonomy since 1986 and its own
constitution since 1978. The political system consists of a bicameral
parliament - a Senate with nine and a House of Representatives with 18
members - and an elected governor. The head of state is the President of
the United States, the current head of government is Governor Ralph
Torres after his predecessor Eloy Inos passed away on December 28, 2015.
Citizens of the Mariana Islands are US citizens but do not have the
right to vote in US presidential elections. You don't have to pay
federal taxes.
In 2018, the Northern Mariana Islands became the
first US territory to legalize the possession of small quantities and
the licensed manufacture of recreational and medicinal cannabis
products.
The official languages are English, Chamorro and
Caroline, while Korean and Japanese are also spoken on the island.