Spanish East Indies together with the Spanish West Indies, were administered through the Viceroyalty of New Spain based in Mexico City. After Mexican independence, they were ruled directly from Madrid. As a result of the Spanish–American War in 1898, the Philippines and Guam were occupied by the United States while about 6,000 of the remaining smaller islands were sold to Germany in the German–Spanish Treaty of 1899. The few remaining islands were ceded to the United States when the Treaty of Washington was ratified in 1901. Spanish contact began on , when a Spanish expedition led by Ferdinand Magellan reached the Mariana Islands.
East Kangaroo Island and crested tern. Cape Barren geese also breed on the island. Reptiles present include the metallic skink and White's skink. The only terrestrial mammal is the introduced House mouse. East Kangaroo Island The East Kangaroo Island, part of the Big Green Group within the Furneaux Group, is a unpopulated limestone island with granite outcrops and dolerite dykes, located in the Bass Strait, west of the Flinders Island, in Tasmania, in south-eastern Australia. Prior to its declaration as the East Kangaroo Island Nature Reserve, the island was previously used to graze sheep, with overgrazing causing severe erosion. The island is part