Page 25 - Micronesia
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Micronesia: Short Background and Facts
In the Spanish–American War, Spain lost many of nesians, and Filipinos. Because of this mixture of
its remaining colonies. In the Pacific, the United descent, many of the ethnicities of Micronesia feel
States took possession of the Spanish Philippines closer to some groups in Melanesia, Polynesia or
and Guam. This left Spain with the remainder of the the Philippines. Though they are all geographically
Spanish East Indies, about 6,000 tiny islands that part of the same region, they all have very different
were sparsely populated and not very productive. colonial histories. The US-administered areas of Mi-
These islands were ungovernable after the loss of cronesia have a unique experience that sets them
the administrative center of Manila, and undefend- apart from the rest of the Pacific. Micronesia has
able after the loss of two Spanish fleets in the war. great economic dependency on its former or cur-
The Spanish government therefore decided to sell rent motherlands, something only comparable to
the remaining islands to a new colonial power: the the French Pacific. Sometimes, the term American
German Empire.The treaty was signed on February Micronesia is used to acknowledge the difference in
12, 1899, by Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Silve- cultural heritage.
la and transferred the Caroline Islands, the Mariana
Islands, Palau and other possessions to Germany. The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM)
The islands were then placed under control of Ger- emerged from the Trust Territory of the Pacific
man New Guinea. Nauru had been annexed and Islands (TTPI) which the United States administered
claimed as a colony by Germany in 1888. on behalf of the United Nations from 1947 until
1978. The FSM adopted its own constitution and
The people today form many ethnicities, but are became an independent country in 1979; it entered
all descended from and belong to the Micro- into a Compact of Free Association with the United
nesian culture. The Micronesian culture was one of States in 1986 and became a member of the United
the last native cultures of the region to develop. It Nations in 1991.
developed from a mixture of Melanesians, Poly-
