The Americans

In 1947, the United Nations declared the Mariana Islands part of a trust territory encompassing a large swath of Oceania that was to be administered by the United States Navy. It would take several decades for Saipan and Tinian to recover from World War II. Rota, however, had been bypassed by the Americans during the war and emerged unscathed.

For several years during the 1960s, the people of Saipan and Rota petitioned the U.S. government to be integrated with Guam. The idea died when Guamians, who carried lingering resentment over the assistance Saipan's native residents provided the Japanese during the war, voted the idea down.

In 1975, the islands voted to cement their ties to the United States, forming the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Under the terms of the agreement, the U.S. military leased about 30 square miles of land. The Northern Marianas retained the right to govern internally and elected their first governor in 1978, when a new constitution went into effect. In 1986, the commonwealth agreement was amended, granting U.S. citizenship to island residents and four years later, the United Nations Security Council voted to formally dissolve the trusteeship established four decades earlier.

The official population of the islands as of 2000 was 71,912 and remains concentrated on the islands of Saipan (the capital), Tinian and Rota. In recent years, an effort has been underway to repopulate some of the other islands, which had been ordered evacuated in the wake of volcanic eruptions.

Recent years have seen the islands blossom as a tourist destination. A number of resorts, golf courses and even a few casinos have changed the character of the islands yet again.