Destiny's Landfall: A History of Guam

More than three thousand years ago small groups of seafarers sailed their canoes from Southeast Asia into the vast reaches of the uninhabited Pacific. The descendants of these courageous mariners created distinctive cultures on clusters of islands north of the equator in an area now called Micronesia. When in 1521 Ferdinand Magellan stepped ashore on the largest of these islands - Guam - it became the first inhabited Pacific island known to Europeans. His fateful landfall not only ushered in the age of European exploration in the Pacific, but led inexorably to foreign domination of every traditional island society throughout Oceania. In the centuries after Magellan, Guam became a small green oasis for alien priests, soldiers, traders, pirates, and other expatriates. Destiny's Landfall tells the story of this colorful cavalcade of outsiders and of the indigenous Chamorro people who, in a remarkable feat of resiliency, maintained their language and their identity despite three centuries of colonial domination by three of history's most powerful nation-states: Spain, Japan, and the United States.In place of Spanish galleons Guam today harbors international airlines, nuclear-powered submarines, and satellite tracking stations. Although Guam has served commercial maritime interests as a valuable communications and supply point, the post-contact history of the island has been - and continues to be - determined primarily by strategic political and military factors beyond the control or influence of the local people. Americanized, modernized, and multiethnic, Guam continues to fulfill the geopolitical role imposed on it by outsiders.This abundantly illustrated and richly documented volume provides a comprehensive look at one of the world's last colonies. Robert F. Rogers evokes the dramatic but little-known saga of Guam's people - from the precontact era to Spanish domination, from colonial rule under a U.S. naval government to the massive military invasions of World War II, and on through the booms and busts, the scandals and victories experienced by Guamanians in their still-unfulfilled quest to regain control of their future.