Federated States of Micronesia History

Federated States of Micronesia

As early as 1,000 B.C., waves of migratory peoples from Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific settled Micronesia. Later, groups from neighboring Pacific islands arrived and merged with the older groups. The cultures are all closely connected with the sea as the source of their subsistence and livelihood. Clans based on kinship were the foundation of society. Beginning in the 16th century, various European countries began to colonize different pieces of Micronesia, named as such by Domeny de Rienzi in 1831.

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator sailing for Spain, visited Guam in 1521. The Island was claimed by Spain until 1899 when it was ceded to the United States after the Spanish-American War. The Japanese occupied the island during World War II until liberated in 1944 by American forces. It continues to serve as the site for strategically important U.S. air and naval bases. Providing goods and service for the U.S. military bases along with tourism are the basis for the economy. Guamanians are U.S. citizens but cannot vote in elections.

Europeans did not settle the Northern Mariana Islands until 1668 when Catholic missionaries converted the indigenous people. The Chamorro race was decimated during Spanish rule and a new wave of people from the Caroline Islands migrated into the Marianas. Spain sold the islands to Germany in 1899. After World War I, the League of Nations gave Japan a mandate to rule the islands. After Japan lost the islands during World War II, the U.S. administered them as a U.N. Trusteeship. In 1978 they became self-governing in political union with the U.S. Residents were granted U.S. citizenship in 1986.

South of the Marianas are the Caroline Islands, divided today between the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau. Portuguese navigator, Diogo da Rocha, reached the Caroline Islands in 1525. Spain annexed them in 1686 but paid little attention to them until the late 19th century when Germany threatened their control. In 1899, Spain sold them to Germany. The Japanese occupied them in 1914 and maintained control until the end of World War II. The war devastated the infrastructure and impoverished the people. In 1947 the Caroline Islands were included in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands which included not only the Carolines but also the Marianas and the Marshall Islands. In 1979, the islands in the eastern Carolines combined to form the Federated States of Micronesia. The Federated States of Micronesia entered a Compact of Free Association with the U.S. in 1986. In 1994, the western Carolines became the republic of Palau.

The Marshall Islands are located to the east of the Carolines. The Spanish explored the Marshall Islands in the 16th century. They were named after a British captain in 1788. The Spanish claimed sovereignty in 1874 but Germany ignored Spain and began to colonize the islands in 1885. This attempt ended when the Japanese assumed control at the beginning of World War I in 1914. It became a U.S. trust territory in 1947 along with the Marianas and Carolines. The U.S. used the islands of Bikini and Eniwetak as a nuclear testing site from 1946-1958. These two islands remain uninhabited because of nuclear contamination. The Marshall Islands became self-governing in 1986 but signed a Compact of Free Association that continued U.S. military and economic aid.

The Spanish explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros explored Kiribati in 1606. In the 1820s, a Russian hydrographer named them the Gilbert Islands. British settlers arrived in Kiribati in 1837. In the 1860s, slavers carried off islanders to work on plantations in Peru and later in Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Australia. It became a British protectorate in 1892 and a crown colony along with the Ellice Islands in 1915. Occupied by the Japanese during World War II, the islands were regained at a tremendous loss of U.S. Marine casualties. Phosphate was the predominant source of income until the deposits were exhausted in 1979. The Ellice Islands were separated in 1975 from Kiribati. In 1979 Kiribati gained independence.

Nauru, located west of Kiribati, was sighted by a British navigator in 1798. Germany annexed it in 1888 and began to mine the phosphate deposits used for fertilizer. Germany lost the island in World War I and the League of Nations put it under joint Australian, New Zealand, and British mandate. The Japanese occupied the islands during World War II. Australia administered it as a U.N. Trusteeship from 1947-1967. It became independent in 1968. The island has been economically devastated by almost a century of phosphate strip mining by foreign countries. Some nations have paid reparations.