Guam—the only Spanish outpost in the Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines, became the regular port between Acapulco,Mexico and Manila from 1565 to 1815, and (since Philippine independence) the most western outpost of actual United States territory in the Pacific—is the biggest single segment of Micronesia, the largest islands between the islands of Kyushu (Japan), New Guinea, and the Philippines, and the Hawaiian Islands.