The Marianas archipelago of the Northern Pacific contains fourteen islands located between Japan and New Guinea on a north–south axis and Hawaii and the Philippines on an east–west axis. Inhabitants were Spanish nationals from the 16th century until the Spanish–American War of 1898. As Guam became a territory of the United States the Northern Marianas were sold to Germany in 1899. The Northern Mariana Islands were a German protectorate until 1919, when they became part of the South Seas Mandate, administered by Japan. At the close of World War II, the Marianas became part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. In 1975, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands became a self-governing territory. In 1986, the Marianas came under the sovereignty of the United States when the trusteeship ended and US nationality and citizenship was conferred on the inhabitants of the territory.
Nationality is the legal means in which inhabitants acquire formal membership in a nation without regard to its governance type. In addition to being United States nationals, people born in the Northern Mariana Islands are both citizens of the United States and citizens of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Citizenship is the relationship between the government and the governed, the rights and obligations that each owes the other, once one has become a member of a nation. Though the Constitution of the United States recognizes both national and state citizenship as a means of accessing rights, the Northern Mariana Islands' unique history allowed it to regulate its own immigration policies until 2009, when its nationality and immigration laws became federalized.
History of nationality in the Mariana Islands Spanish period (1521–1898) Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, during his fleet's circumnavigation of the globe for Charles I, King of Spain, sighted Guam and Rota on March 6, 1521, naming the islands Los Ladrones (The Thieves). In 1565, Miguel López de Legazpi officially claimed the Ladrones for Spain. From that date the Laws of the Indies were implemented in the islands and the inhabitants became subjects of the Spanish crown, under the authority of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in Mexico. Administration on behalf of the king was granted to the Council of the Indies, which served as the authority on commercial, ecclesiastical, financial, legal and military matters in the Spanish possessions. No European settlement occurred at that time and the island was only visited from time to time by Dutch, English and Spanish explorers and pirates. It was not until 1668, when Mariana of Austria Queen Regent of Spain authorized missionary Diego Luis de San Vitores to establish a mission, that Spanish colonization began and the islands were renamed in her honor. In 1681, a royal decree granted the indigenous population, the Chamorro people, equal status with other Spanish subjects in its possessions. In general, this meant that criollos, persons with Spanish heritage born in the colonies, had fewer rights than peninsulares, those born in Spain, but more rights than indigenous people or slaves.
In 1808 when Charles IV of Spain was dethroned by an attempted coup d'état during the Peninsular War with France, the government-in-exile promulgated Spain's first constitution. The 1812 Constitution of Cádiz limited the power of the king and granted freedoms and rights to the Spanish people. Under its terms, the Spanish nation included all free men and their children born and settled in the territories of the Spanish empire. Freedmen from Africa and foreigners residing within Spanish territory were permitted to naturalize as Spanish. In 1814 upon returning to Spain from captivity in France, Ferdinand VII abrogated the constitution and reinstated an absolute monarchy, leading to independence wars throughout Spanish America. Revolution in 1820 reinstated the Constitution of Cádiz, but the return to power of Ferdinand in 1823, saw it suspended again. In 1824 the control of the Mariana Islands was moved from Mexico to the Captaincy General of the Philippines and in 1828 a new organic law was devised for the territory.
Instability in the Spanish empire continued until 1874 with periods of conflict followed by calm only to erupt into insurrection again. The Constitution of Cádiz was reinstated in 1836 and revoked a year later. Two Carlist Wars followed by the 1868 Revolution, led to a democratic experiment and the drafting of a new constitution in 1869. The constitution called for significant colonial reforms, but before they could be acted upon the Third Carlist War and subsequent restoration of the monarchy ended its authority. A new constitution was adopted in 1876, and in 1889 the first Spanish Civil Code was adopted. The Code was extended to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Captaincy General of the Philippines, establishing that nationality was acquired either from birth in Spanish territory or by descent from a Spanish national. Legitimate children could derive nationality from a father, but only illegitimate children could derive Spanish nationality from a mother, as a married woman was required to take the nationality of her husband. It also contained provisions for foreigners to naturalize.
In 1895, the Cuban War of Independence served as catalyst for the Spanish–American War. Battles in both the Caribbean and Pacific resulted in destruction of the Spanish fleet and loss of its overseas possessions. On June 21, 1898, the Spanish governor Juan Marina surrendered Guam to the US forces and under the terms of the Treaty of Paris signed in December, Spain relinquished sovereignty over Cuba and ceded Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico to the United States. Guam was separated from the rest of the Mariana Islands, which were sold to Germany along with the Caroline Islands and Palau in 1899.
German colonial period (1899–1920) Upon acquiring the Marianas in 1899, German administrators found them to be economically unproductive and a financial burden, eventually moving the administrative headquarters from Saipan to Yap. Under the terms of the Colonial Act of 1888, German colonies were not part of the federal union, but they were also not considered foreign. Thus, laws that were extended to the colonies sometimes treated residents as nationals and other times as foreigners. Native subjects in the colonies were not considered to be German, but were allowed to naturalize. Naturalization required ten years residence in the territory and proof of self-employment. It was automatically bestowed upon all members of a family, meaning children and wives derived the nationality of the husband. The Nationality Law of 1913 changed the basis for acquiring German nationality from domicile to patrilineality, but did not alter derivative nationality. At the outbreak of World War I, Japan joined the Allies and began an offensive to capture the German possessions in the Pacific. By October 1914, Japanese troops were in possession of Saipan. During their occupation maintained the German administrative system. At the end of the war, under terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Japan was granted the South Seas Mandate in 1919, which included the Caroline, Mariana, Marshall, and Palau islands. Terms of the mandate specified that islanders were not to be militarized and that social and economic development in the territory was to be of benefit to the local inhabitants.
Mandate, trustee period (1920–1978) Between 1921 and 1922, administration for the Japanese Pacific colonies passed from the navy to civil authorities of the South Seas Bureau (). The native inhabitants of the islands were not equal to Japanese imperial subjects and were accorded different status. They were considered aliens, though if they met requirements of the 1899 Nationality Law, islanders could naturalize. Despite the League of Nations' mandate for Japan to treat the colonies as integral parts of the nation, Japan chose not to extend the constitution to their Pacific colonies. Japan surrendered its Pacific possessions at the end of World War II and the United States proposed retaining control over the former Japanese-mandated islands for security purposes. Mandates were replaced by Trust Territories to be overseen by a Trusteeship Council of the United Nations. In 1947, a trust agreement was drawn between the United Nations and the United States to establish the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.
Upon taking control of the region in July 1947, the United States Navy decreed the removal of Japanese immigrants and began the process of repatriating Japanese civilians. The Trust Territory was managed by the navy until 1951, at which time administration was passed to the United States Department of the Interior. The following year, the Code of the Trust Territory was introduced. It defined nationals as persons born in the territory prior to December 22, 1952, who had not acquired other nationality, or those born after that date in the territory. It also confirmed that children born abroad to parents who were nationals of the Trust Territory derived their parents' nationality until the age of twenty-one. Foreigners over the age of eighteen were allowed to naturalize in the Trust Territory. The Code, as amended in 1966 and 1973 authorized the Trust Territory to control immigration and granted authority to naturalize or denaturalize persons in the territory. Trust Territories nationals were not considered to be US nationals but were allowed to naturalize as would any other foreigner in the United States.
From 1969, the United States and representatives of the Trust Territory began negotiations to develop systems to terminate the trusteeship and provide pathways to independence. Initially talks for the Marianas involved reuniting with Guam, but the proposal was rejected by Guamanian voters in 1969. Because of the diversity of the districts of the territory, it was divided into four areas — Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau — as it was deemed that a single set of documents would not adequately serve the political needs for the region. In 1975, the Northern Marianas chose independence from the Trust Territory; the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America (Covenant) was ratified by plebiscite of the voters in June. President Gerald Ford signed the congressional resolution into law in 1976 and the Northern Marianas left the Trust Territory in 1978. The Covenant is unique in that it established limitations on federal authority as it applies to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Federal legislation that is applicable to the Commonwealth must specify that it is applicable in the Commonwealth and cannot be extended or implemented in the Northern Marianas without their prior consent.
United States period (1978–present) Establishing nationality for the Northern Mariana Islands (1978–2009)