Asia and Oceania

Micronesia
Last reviewed: 29 September 2009

Country information

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History

Spain asserted and consolidated control over two of the Micronesian Island groups, the Caroline and Mariana Islands, during the 19th century. These passed into the hands of Germany (which controlled the neighbouring Marshall Islands) in the late 19th Century. Early in World War I all these islands were seized by Japan, which subsequently administered them under a League of Nations mandate. During World War II the United States wrested them from Japanese control. In 1947, Micronesia became the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), administered by the United Nations. Washington, which viewed the Micronesian region in terms of strategic denial and forward deployment, gave little thought to its political evolution until the early 1960s. It formed a territory-wide legislature, the congress of Micronesia, in 1965, and approached the termination of the trusteeship with the establishment of permanent linkages between the United States and Micronesia as its objective. The Micronesians, however, sought a status similar to that of the Cook Islands: self governing in free association with the United States, with the unilateral right to terminate the relationship in favour of full independence. One component, the Northern Marianas, accepted a US counter proposal of commonwealth status (modelled on its relationship with Puerto Rico), but the others rejected this solution. Two components, Palau and the Marshall Islands (both of strategic importance to the US), preferred to form their own governments and negotiate independently with the United States.

BBC News Country Timeline: Micronesia