Micronesia

This article is about the greater region. For the independent state, see Federated States of Micronesia.

Map of Micronesia

Micronesia, from the Greek mikros (μικρός) (meaning small) and nesos (νῆσος) (meaning island), is a subregion of Oceania, comprising hundreds of small islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Philippines lie to the northwest, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia to the west and southwest, and Polynesia to the east.

Geography and history

This region 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 into eight nation-states and territories:

•  Guam
•  Kiribati
•  Marshall Islands
•  Federated States of Micronesia (sometimes referred to simply as "Micronesia", or abbreviated as "FSM")
•  Nauru
•  Northern Mariana Islands
•  Palau
•  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 by the Spanish. These island territories were part of the Spanish East Indies and governed from Spanish Philippines since the early 17th century until 1898. Full European expansion did not come, however, until the early 20th century, when the area would be divided between:

• the United States, which took control of Guam following 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 is a U.S. Commonwealth) are independent states.

People

The people today form many ethnicities, but are all descended from and belong to the Micronesian culture. The Micronesian culture was one of the last native cultures of the region to develop. It developed from a mixture of Melanesians, Filipinos and Polynesians. Because of this mixture of decent, many of the ethnicities of Micronesia, feel closer to some groups in Melanesia, Polynesia or the Philippines. A good example of this are the Yapese who are related to Austronesian tribes in the Northern Philippines

Languages

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, two exceptions are noted in Western Micronesia, which belong to the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup:

• Chamorro, Tanapag and Carolinian in the Mariana Islands,
• Palauan in Palau.

This latter subgroup also includes most 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.

Regional organizations

The region is home to the Micronesian Games, a quadrennial international multi-sport event involving all Micronesia\'s countries and territories except Wake Island.

In September 2007, journalists in the region founded the Micronesian Media Association "Regional Journalists Form Micronesian Media Association", Pacific Magazine, 25 September, 2007.

References

• Kirch, Patrick Vinton (2000). On the Road of the Winds. An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact. University of California Press, pp. 166-167. ISBN 0-520-22347-0. 

v • d • e Countries and territories of Oceania
Australasia	Australia · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands · New Zealand1[›] · Norfolk Island
Melanesia	East Timor2[›] · Fiji · Indonesia (Maluku Islands) · New Caledonia · Papua New Guinea3[›] · Solomon Islands · Vanuatu
Micronesia	Federated States of Micronesia · Guam · Kiribati · Marshall Islands · Nauru · Northern Mariana Islands · Palau
Polynesia	American Samoa · Cook Islands · French Polynesia · Niue · Pitcairn · Samoa · Tokelau · Tonga · Tuvalu · Wallis and Futuna
	^ 1: New Zealand is often included in Polynesia. ^ 2: East Timor is often included in Asia. ^ 3: New Guinea is often included in Australasia.

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