Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands

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Largest island and capital of the Northern Marianas Islands with a population of 62,392 at the 2000 census. The island was first settled by the Chamorros people around 2000 BCE. The Spanish formally claimed the Marianas Islands in 1667. Upon Spanish settlement, the native peoples were resettled on Guam. In the early 19th century, Carolinian Micronesians settled the island, which was the largest settlement of the Marianas. Germany was ceded the Islands in 1899, and the Japanese conquered the islands during World War One. In 1922 the League of Nations formally ceded Japan the islands under a League of Nations Mandate.

Saipan was a major Japanese military garrison in the 1930s and early 1940s. In 1944 US forces captured the island during the costly Battle of Saipan. It served as the capital of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a United Nations mandated territory administered by the United States. In 1986 the Northern Marianas Islands became a US commonwealth with Saipan as its capital.