Micronesia
Micronesia, from the
ancient Greek μικρος (small) and
νησος (island), is the name of a region in the
Pacific Ocean. The
Philippines lie to the west,
Indonesia to the south west,
Papua New Guinea and
Melanesia to the south, and
Polynesia to the south-east and east.
This region of
Oceania consists of many hundreds of small
islands spread over a large region of the western Pacific.
The only empire known to have originated in Micronesia was based in
Yap.
The term "Micronesia" was first proposed to distinguish the region in 1831 by
Jules Dumont d'Urville; before this the term "Polynesia" was in use to generally describe the islands of the Pacific.
Politically, Micronesia is divided between eight territories:
* the
Federated States of Micronesia (sometimes referred to simply as "Micronesia", or alternatively abbreviated "FSM");
* the
Republic of the Marshall Islands;
* the
Republic of Palau;
* the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
* the
Republic of Nauru;
* the
Republic of Kiribati;
* the
Territory of Guam.
* the
Territory of Wake Island.
Much of the area was to come under European domination quite early. Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the
Caroline Islands (what would later become the FSM and Palau) were colonized early on by the Spanish. Full European expansion did not come, however, until the late 19th century, when the area would be divided between:
* the
United States, which took control of Guam during the
Spanish-American War of 1898, and colonized Wake Island;
*
Germany, which took Nauru and bought the Marshall, Caroline, and Northern Mariana Islands from Spain;
and* the
British Empire, which took the
Gilbert Islands (Kiribati).
During the
First World War, Germany's Pacific island territories were taken from it and were made into
League of Nations Mandates. Nauru became an
Australian mandate, while Germany's other territories were given as mandates to
Japan. This remained the situation until Japan's defeat in the Second World War, when its mandates became a
United Nations Trusteeship ruled by the United States, the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Today, all of Micronesia (with the exceptions of Guam and Wake Island, which are U.S. territories, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which are a U.S. Commonwealth) are independent states.
The native languages of the various Micronesian
indigenous peoples are classified under the
Austronesian language family. Almost all of these languages belong to the
Oceanic subgroup of this family; however, three exceptions are noted in Western Micronesia, which belong to the
Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup:
*
Chamorro in the
Mariana Islands,
*
Yapese in the Federated States of Micronesia, and
*
Palauan in
Palau.This latter subgroup also includes quite a few languages spoken today in the
Philippines,
Malaysia, and
Indonesia (Kirch, 2000: pp. 166-167).
On the eastern edge of the Federated States of Micronesia, the languages
Nukuoro and
Kapingamarangi represent an extreme westward extension of
Polynesian.
* On
The West Wing season one, episode "Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics," President Bartlet informs his staff about Micronesia "It's actually 607 small islands in the South Pacific. Interestingly, while its total land mass is only 270 square miles, it occupies more than a million square miles of the Pacific Ocean. Population is 127,000 and the U.S. Embassy is located in the state of Pohnpei and not, as many people believe, on the island of Yap."
* Also, in that same episode, Donna mentions that Micronesia has some of the best scuba diving in the world.
*
Micronesian music*
*
Map of Micronesia*
Moon Handbooks Micronesia*
myMicronesia.com*
Micronesia conservation and nature* [https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/fm.html Micronesia Facts, Maps and flags]
*
College of Micronesia
