The Northern Mariana Islands (officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or CNMI) is a territory of the United States. The Micronesian territory comprises the 14 northernmost islands of the Mariana Archipelago (the southernmost island, Guam, is a separate US territory). The northern islands are volcanic, with active volcanoes on several islands, while the southern group are coral islands with fringing reefs. The vast majority of the islanders live on the islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota. Pagan once had several thousand inhabitants, but they were evacuated following a volcanic eruption in 1981. Most never returned.

History

The islands were first settled around 1500 to 1400 BC by Austronesian migrants from the Philippines. Known as the Chamorro, the ancient people of the Marianas raised pillars called latte stones upon which they built their homes. The first European to arrive in the Mariana Islands was the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing under the Spanish flag, in 1521. Landing on Guam, he claimed the archipelago for Spain. Most of the islands' native population (90–95%) died from European diseases or were forcibly moved to Guam. Peoples from the neighbouring Philippines and Caroline Islands repopulated the islands, resulting in the three main ethnic groups—Chamorro, Filipino and Carolinian (or Refaluwasch)—who live on the islands today.
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Spain sold the Northern Marianas, along with the Caroline Islands (today, divided between the Federates States of Micronesia and Palau) to Germany in 1899. After World War I, ownership passed to Japan. In 1944, during World War II, the US military invaded the Mariana Islands, triggering the Battle of Saipan, which ended in a calamitous defeat for the Japanese. After the war, the US administered the islands, which came under full US sovereignty in 1986. 

Facts about Northern Mariana Islands

Population 53,883

Area 464 sq km (179 sq miles)

Highest point Mount Agrihan 965 m (3166 ft )

Capital Capitol Hill, Saipan (pop. 1028)

Languages Philippine languages, Chamorro, English, Carolinian (Refaluwasch), Chinese, other Asian

Religions Christian (Roman Catholic) 64%, Christian (Protestant) 16%, Buddhist 11%, other 9%

Ethnicity Filipino 35.3%, Chamorro 23.9%, mixed 12.7%, Chinese 6.8%, Japanese 5.3%, Carolinian 4.6%, Korean 4.2%, white 2.1%

Currency US dollar (USD)