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Suruhånu yan Amot (Healers and Medicine)

The ancient Chamorros/CHamorus were generally healthy people. They were well built and appeared to be very healthy by visitors to the islands. They did not suffer from diseases like smallpox, influenza or the plague until Westerners came to the island. However, it is documented that Hansen’s Disease or leprosy was present before European contact.

Trepang Trade

The 19th century trepang trade was a profit-driven industry throughout the Pacific, most notably in Melanesia and the western Pacific, and lasted as a viable industry until the early 1940s. Today, it is a cottage industry in many parts of Melanesia.

Treaty of Zaragoza

The Treaty of Zaragoza was ratified in 1529 between the king of Spain and Emperor Charles V, and João III of Portugal, regarding the areas of influence of both countries in Asia in general and over the Moluccas, Indonesia (known as the Spice Islands) in particular.

Treaty of Tordesillas

The Treaty of Tordesillas was ratified by the Crown of Castile and the King of Portugal in 1494. The treaty divided the newly discovered lands outside of Europe into two equal halves, the east side belonging to Portugal, and the west to Castile (later to become part of Spain). The Mariana Islands were on the Spanish side, thereby giving Spain the right to colonize the Marianas which they did 174 years later in 1668.

Pedro Sanchez Pericón

Pedro Sanchez Pericon was the captain of the Spanish galleon San Geronimo (also referred to as San Jerónimo), the ill-fated ship that began the famed Acapulco-Manila route. The treacherous voyage across the Pacific was marred by disagreements, mutiny and murder. The events that transpired aboard the San Geronimo illustrate the difficulties faced by 16th century mariners on their passage between Acapulco and Manila.

Luís de Torres

Guam of the late-18th century only had a population of about 2,000. The CHamoru people were in a state of recovery following many years of the ravages of disease and war.

Ferdinand Magellan

Ferdinand Magellan (1480 – 1521), born in Portugal and killed in Cebu, Philippines, was a Portuguese seafarer and navigator who worked most of his life for Castille, the Spanish throne. In 1520-1521, Magellan commanded an expedition of five ships whose mission was to find a passage around the American continent to the Spice Islands (Moluku, Indonesia).

Dutch Traders

The rise of the Dutch maritime commercial activities in the Pacific and Asia in the early 17th century is based on a series of events between the independent Netherlands merchant towns and King Philip II of Spain. The resistance of the Netherlands proved the undoing of Spanish dreams of a world empire.

Andres de Urdaneta

Andrés de Urdaneta (1498-1568), a Spanish Augustinian friar born in Villafranca de Ordizia in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, Spain, was a seaman, sailor, navigator and author who became the most knowledgeable European navigator of the Pacific, best known for his discovery of the Tornaviaje, or return sea route from the Philippines to the Americas.

Mapping the Pacific

Although there are Chinese records from 1226 mentioning islands located in the area of the Philippines, no Chinese map referring to the area now called “Micronesia” is known to have survived the passage of the centuries.