The history of Guam involves phases including the early arrival of Austronesian people known today as the Chamorros around 2000 BC, the development of "pre-contact" society, Spanish colonization in the 17th century and the present American rule of the island since the 1898 Spanish–American War. Guam's history of colonialism is the longest among the Pacific islands, it is believed that Guam was first discovered by seafaring people who migrated from Southeast Asia around 2000 BC. The original inhabitants of Guam are believed to be descendants of Austronesian people originating from Southeast Asia as early as 2000 BC, having linguistic and cultural similarities to Malaysia and the Philippines; these people evolved into the Chamorro people. They flourished as an advanced and hunting society, they were expert seafarers and skilled craftsmen familiar with intricate weaving and detailed pottery who built unique houses and canoes suited to this region of the world. Most of what is known about Pre-Contact Chamorros comes from legends and myths, archaeological evidence, Jesuit missionary accounts, observations from visiting scientists like Otto von Kotzebue and Louis de Freycinet.

When Europeans first arrived on Guam, Chamorro society fell into three classes: matao and mana'chang. The matao were located in the coastal villages, which meant they had the best access to fishing grounds while the mana'chang were located in the interior of the island. Matao and mana'chang communicated with each other, matao used achaot as a go-between. There were "makhanas" and "suruhanus", skilled in healing and medicine. Belief in spirits of ancient Chamorros called Taotao Mona still persists as remnant of pre-European society. Early European explorers noted the Chamorros' fast sailing vessels used for trading with other islands of Micronesia; the "latte stones" familiar to Guam residents and visitors alike were in fact a recent development in Pre-Contact Chamorro society. The latte stone consists of a base shaped out of limestone. Like the Easter Island statues, there is plenty of speculation over how this was done by a society without machines or metal, but the accepted view is that the head and base were etched out of the ground by sharp adzes and picks, carried to the assembly area by an elaborate system of ropes and logs.

The latte stone was used as a part of the raised foundation for a magalahi house, although they may have been used for canoe sheds. Archaeologists using carbon-dating have broken Pre-Contact Guam history into three periods: "Pre-Latte" "Transitional Pre-Latte", "Latte". Archaeological evidence suggests that Chamorro society was on the verge of another transition phase by 1521, as latte stones became bigger. Assuming the stones were used for chiefly houses, it can be argued that Chamorro society was becoming more stratified, either from population growth or the arrival of new people; the theory remains tenuous, due to lack of evidence, but if proven correct, will further support the idea that Pre-Contact Chamorros lived in a vibrant and dynamic environment. The first known contact between Guam and Western Europe occurred when a Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer sailing for the Holy Roman Emperor King Charles I of Spain, arrived with his 3-ship fleet in Guam on March 6, 1521 after a long voyage across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, from Spain.

History credits the village of Umatac as his landing place, but drawings from the navigator's diary suggest that Magellan may have landed in Tumon in northern Guam. The expedition had started out in Spain with five ships. By the time they reached the Marianas they were down to three ships and nearly half the crew, due to storms and the mutiny in one ship which destroyed the expedition. Tired and hungry from their long discovery voyage, the crew prepared to go ashore and restore provisions in Guam. However, the excited native Chamorros who had a different concept of ownership, based on subsistence living, canoed out to the ships and began helping themselves to everything, not nailed down to the deck of the galleons. "The aboriginals were willing to engage in barter... Their love of gain overcame every other consideration." As the Chamorros took everything they found on the ship without asking and his crew remembered the island as the "Isla de Ladrones". After a few shots were fired from the Trinidad's big guns, the natives were frightened off from the ship and retreated into the surrounding jungle.

Magellan was able to obtain rations and offered iron, a prized material, in exchange for fresh fruits and water. Details of this visit, the first in history between Westerners and a Pacific island people, come from the journal of Antonio Pigafetta, the expedition's scribe and one of only 18 crew members to survive the circumnavigation of the globe, completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano. Despite Magellan's visit, Guam was not claimed by Spain until 1565 by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. However, the island was not colonized until the 17th century. On June 15, 1668, the galleon San Diego arrived at the shore of the island of Guam. Jesuit missionaries led by Padre Diego Luis de San Vitores arrived on Guam to introduce Christianity and develop trade; the Spanish taught the Chamorros to cultivate maize, raise cattle, tan hides, as well as to adopt western-style clothing. They introduced the Spanish language and culture. Once Christianity was established, the Catholic Church became the focal point for village

As the Yuan dynasty ended, many Mongols as well as the Muslims who came with them remained in China. Most of their descendants became part of the diverse cultural world of China. During the following Ming rule, Muslims adopted Chinese culture. Most became fluent in Chinese and adopted Chinese names and the capital, became a center of Islamic learning; as a result, the Muslims became "outwardly indistinguishable" from the Chinese. The Ming dynasty saw the rapid decline in the Muslim population in the sea ports; this was due to the closing of all seaport trade with the outside world except for rigid government-sanctioned trade. As a result of increasing isolationism by the Ming dynasty, immigration from Muslim countries slowed down drastically however, the Muslims in China became isolated from the rest of the Islamic world becoming more sinicized, adopting the Chinese language and Chinese dress. Muslims became integrated into Chinese society. One interesting example of this synthesis was the process.

Muslims sought to integrate themselves with the majority of the Chinese people during this time, making themselves undistinguished as possible to assimilate. Foreign origin Muslims adopted the Chinese character which sounded the most phonetically similar to the beginning syllables of their Muslim names – Ha for Hasan, Hu for Hussain and Sa'I for Said and so on. Han who converted to Islam kept their own surnames like Zhang. Chinese surnames that are common among Muslim families are Mo, Mu – names adopted by the Muslims who had the surnames Muhammad and Masoud. Muslim customs of dress and food underwent a synthesis with Chinese culture; the Islamic modes of dress and dietary rules were maintained within a Chinese cultural framework. Chinese Islamic cuisine is influenced by Beijing cuisine, with nearly all cooking methods identical, differs only in material due to religious restrictions; as a result, northern Islamic cuisine is included as part of Beijing cuisine. During the Ming dynasty, Chinese Islamic traditions of writing began to develop, including the practice of writing Chinese using the Arabic script and distinctly Chinese forms of decorative calligraphy.

The script is used extensively in mosques in eastern China, to a lesser extent in Gansu and Shaanxi. A famous Sini calligrapher is Hajji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang. Mosque Architecture began to follow traditional Chinese architecture. A good example is the Great Mosque of Xi'an. Western Chinese mosques were more to incorporate minarets and domes while eastern Chinese mosques were more to look like pagodas. In time, the Muslims who were descendants of immigrants from Muslim countries began to speak local dialects and to read in Chinese Language. In Qinghai, the Salar Muslims voluntarily came under Ming dynasty rule; the Salar clan leaders each capitulated to the Ming dynasty around 1370. The chief of the four upper clans around this time was Han Pao-yuan and Ming granted him office of centurion, it was at this time the people of his four clans took Han as their surname; the other chief Han Shan-pa of the four lower Salar clans got the same office from Ming, his clans were the ones who took Ma as their surname.

By the middle of the 16th century occasional Europeans who had a chance to travel in China start reporting on the existence and the way of life of the Chinese Muslims. The Portuguese smuggler Galeote Pereira, captured off the Fujian coast in 1549, spent a few years in Fujian and Guangxi, has a few pages on the Chinese Muslims in his report, he felt that in both places the Muslim community was assimilating into the Chinese mainstream. Both Mongol and Central Asian Semu Muslim women and men of both sexes were required by Ming Code to marry Han Chinese after the first Ming Emperor Hongwu passed the law in Article 122; the Ming policy towards the Islamic religion was tolerant, while their racial policy towards ethnic minorities was of integration through forced marriage. Muslims were allowed to practice Islam, but if they were members of other ethnic groups they were required by law to intermarry, so Hui had to marry Han since they were different ethnic groups, with the Han converting to Islam.

Integration was mandated through intermarriage by Ming law, ethnic minorities had to marry people of other ethnic groups. The Chinese during the Ming dynasty tried to force foreigners like the Hui into marrying Chinese women. Marriage between upper class Han Chinese and Hui Muslims was low, since upper class Han Chinese men would both refuse to marry Muslim women, forbid their daughters from marrying Muslim men, since they did not want to convert due to their upper class status. Only low and mean status Han Chinese men would convert. Ming law allowed Han Chinese men and women to not have to marry Hui, only marry each other, while Hui men and women were required to marry a spouse not of their race; the Hongwu Emperor decreed the building of multiple mosques throughout China in many locations. A Nanjing mosque was built by the Xuanzong Emperor. Muslims in Ming dynasty Beijing were given relative freedom by the Chinese, with no restrictions placed on their religious practices or freedom of worship, being normal citizens in Beijing.

In contrast to the freedom granted to Muslims, followers of Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism suffered from restrictions and censure in Beijing. The Hongwu Emperor ordered the building of several mosques in southern China, wrote a 100 character praise on Islam and the prophet Muhammad, he had over 10 Muslim Generals in his mi

Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in Cheshire East, England. It contains 132 listed buildings and structures, with three classified as grade I, seven as grade II* and 122 as grade II. In the United Kingdom, the term "listed building" refers to a building or other structure designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance. There are three grades: grade I denotes buildings of outstanding architectural or historical interest, grade II* denotes significant buildings of more than local interest, grade II includes buildings of special architectural or historical interest. Buildings in England are listed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics and Sport on recommendations provided by English Heritage, which determines the grading; this list includes the listed buildings and structures within the boundaries of the civil parish of Nantwich. Nantwich lies on the banks of the River Weaver on the Cheshire Plain; the town is believed to have been a salt-producing centre from the 10th century or earlier.

A Norman castle was built at the crossing of the Weaver before 1180 near where the Crown Inn now stands. Although nothing remains of the castle above ground, it affected the town's layout. During the medieval period, Nantwich was the most important salt town and the second most important settlement in the county after Chester. By the 14th century, the town held a weekly cattle market at the end of Beam Street, was important for its tanning industry centred on Barker Street. A fire destroyed most of the town to the east of the Weaver in 1583. Elizabeth I contributed to the town's rebuilding, which occurred and followed the plan of the destroyed town; the salt industry peaked in the mid-16th century, with around 400 salt houses in 1530, had died out by the end of the 18th century. Nikolaus Pevsner considers the decline in the salt industry to have been the critical factor in preserving the town's historic buildings; the town's location on the London to Chester road meant that Nantwich served the needs of travellers from the medieval era.

This trade declined in the 19th century, with the opening of Telford's road from London to Holyhead, which offered a faster route to Wales, when the Grand Junction Railway bypassed the town. The listed buildings are clustered in the town centre on Barker Street, Beam Street, Churchyard Side, High Street and Hospital Street, extending across the Weaver on Welsh Row; the great majority are located within the 38 hectares of conservation area, which broadly follows the boundaries of the late medieval and early post-medieval town. The oldest listed building is St Mary's Church, which dates from the 14th century and is listed at grade I. Two other listed buildings are known to pre-date the fire of 1583: Sweetbriar Hall and the grade-I-listed Churche's Mansion are both timber-framed, "black and white" Elizabethan mansion houses. A few years after the fire, William Camden described Nantwich as the "best built town in the county", fine examples of timber-framed buildings constructed during the town's rebuilding include 46 High Street and the grade-I-listed Crown coaching inn.

Many half-timbered buildings, such as 140–142 Hospital Street, have been concealed behind brick or render. The town contains many Georgian town houses. Several examples of Victorian corporate architecture are listed, including the former District Bank by Alfred Waterhouse; the most recent listed buildings are 1–5 Pillory Street, a curved corner block in 17th-century French style which dates from 1911, the war memorial which dates from 1921. The majority of the town's listed buildings were residential. Unusual listed structures include a mounting block, twelve cast-iron bollards, a stone gateway, two garden walls and a summerhouse. A Location is given first as a grid reference, based on the British national grid reference system of the Ordnance Survey. Data derive from grid references at English Heritage's Listed Buildings Online website, except where noted. B Locations for Wright's Almshouses and Nantwich Workhouse at Listed Buildings Online are incorrect. Bavington G et al. Nantwich, Worleston & Wybunbury: A Portrait in Old Picture Postcards Beck J. Tudor Cheshire.

A History of Cheshire, Vol. 7 Blacklay F. Almshouses of Nantwich Crewe & Nantwich Borough Council: Schedule of Buildings of Architectural or Historic Interest Hall J. A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich, or Wich Malbank, in the County Palatine of Chester Hewitt HJ. Cheshire under the Three Edwards. A History of Cheshire, Vol. 5 Lake J. The Great Fire of Nantwich Lamberton A, Gray R. Lost Houses in Nantwich McKenna L. Timber Framed Buildings in Cheshire Nicolle D. Francis Frith's Nantwich and Crewe: Photographic Memories Pevsner N, Hubbard E; the Buildings of England: Cheshire Phillips ADM, Phillips CB. A New Historical Atlas of Cheshire (Cheshire County Cou