Editing Micronesia (section)

===Mariana Islands===
[[File:Suicide Cliff in Saipan 3.JPG|thumb|Mount Marpi in [[Saipan]].]]
The [[Mariana Islands]] are an arc-shaped [[archipelago]] made up by the summits of fifteen volcanic mountains. The island chain rose as a result of the western edge of the [[Pacific Plate]] moving westward and plunging downward below the [[Mariana plate]], a region that is the most volcanically active convergent plate boundary on Earth. The Marianas were politically divided in 1898, when the United States acquired title to [[Guam]] under the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris, 1898]], which ended the [[Spanish–American War]]. Spain then sold the remaining northerly islands to [[German Empire|Germany]] in 1899. Germany lost all of her colonies at the end of [[World War I]] and the [[Northern Mariana Islands]] became a [[League of Nations]] Mandate, with [[Japan]] as the mandatory. After [[World War II]], the islands were transferred into the [[United Nations]] [[United Nations Trust Territories|Trust Territory]] System, with the [[United States]] as Trustee. In 1976, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States entered into a covenant of political union under which commonwealth status was granted the Northern Mariana Islands and its residents received United States citizenship.