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Geography
The Republic of the Marshall Islands is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 coral atolls and five islands, divided across two island chains: Ratak in the east and Ralik in the west. 97.87% of its territory is water, the largest proportion of water to land of any sovereign state. The country shares maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and the Federated States of Micronesia to the west.
Administratively, the country is divided into 24 inhabited municipalities, corresponding to the 24 inhabited atolls or islands, where each of them is an electoral district.
Twenty Four municipalities of The Marshall Islands:
- Ailinglaplap Atoll
- Ailuk Atoll
- Arno Atoll
- Aur Atoll
- Ebon Atoll
- Enewetok / Ujelang
- Jabat Island
- Jaluit Atoll
- Kili / Bikini / Ejit
- Kwajalein Atoll
- Lae Atoll
- Lib Island
- Likiep Atoll
- Majuro (capital)
- Maloelap Atoll
- Mejit Island
- Mili Atoll
- Namorik Atoll
- Namu Atoll
- Rongelap Atoll
- Ujae Atoll
- Utirik Atoll
- Wotho Atoll
- Wotje Atoll
Majuro is The Marshal Islands capital and largest city, followed by Ebeye Island.
See Also: Geography of the Marshall Islands
History
Linguistic and anthropological studies have suggested that the first Austronesian settlers of the Marshall Islands arrived from the Solomon Islands. Radiocarbon dating of um earth ovens, post holes, and trash pits at Bikini Atoll suggests that the atoll may have been continuously inhabited from 1200 BCE to at least 1300 CE, though samples may not have been collected from secure stratigraphic contexts and older driftwood samples may have affected results. Archaeological digs on other atolls have found evidence of human habitation dating around the 1st century CE, including earth ovens at the Laura village, Majuro, with a date range of 93 BCE to 127 CE and Kwajalein with a range of 140 BCE to 255 CE.
The British ships Charlotte and Scarborough visited the islands in 1788 under the commands of captains Thomas Gilbert and John Marshall, respectively. The vessels had been part of the First Fleet taking convicts from England to Botany Bay in New South Wales, and were en route to Guangzhou when they passed through the Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands. Subsequent navigational charts and maps named the islands for John Marshall.
Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue spent three months exploring the Ratak Chain in early 1817, and returned to explore the islands on two occasions in 1824 and 1825. According to Kotzebue's account, the Marshallese people showed few signs of western influence on his first visit in 1817. He gifted the islanders metal knives and hatchets and set up a temporary forge to craft fishhooks and harpoons. He also introduced new crops, including yams, as well as livestock, including pigs, goats, dogs, and cats. Kotzebue also noted that in 1817, Lamari, the iroij of Aur Atoll, had successfully conquered the other atolls of northern Ratak Chain and was preparing to go to war with Majuro Atoll. On his return trips in the 1820s, Kotzebue found that the Marshallese were still tending to crops that he had given them, but that the livestock and metal tools were concentrated among the island chieftains. He also found that the metal hatchets had played a decisive role in Lamari's victory over the people of Majuro; by the time of Kotzebue's second visit, Lamari was planning to further expand his power and begin making incursions into the Ralik Chain.
From the 1830s through the 1850s, the Marshallese Islanders became increasingly hostile to western vessels, possibly because of violent punishments that sea captains exacted for theft as well as the abduction of Marshallese people for sale into slavery on Pacific plantations. In 1833, the inhabitants of Ebon Atoll seized a dozen crew members of the British whaler Elizabeth when they went ashore. The sailors were never seen again. In 1834, the captain of a trading schooner and two of his crew members were killed at Bikini Atoll. Three vessels were sent to search for the captain, and when the Hawaiian brig Waverly discovered evidence of his death, the crew killed 30 Marshallese hostages in retaliation. In 1835, the inhabitants of Namdrik Atoll boarded the Massachusetts whaler Awashonks, killing the captain and five crew members before their iroij was killed by a musket shot. The inhabitants of Mili Atoll attacked whalers in 1837 and 1844.[52] In 1845, a fight broke out on the deck of the Naiad after the captain violently punished a native for stealing from the ship. Several Marshallese were killed and four crew members were seriously wounded. In 1850, two passengers of the William Melville were killed after going ashore at Kwajalein Atoll. In 1851 and 1852, the Marshallese attacked three ships and massacred their crews: the Glencoe at Ebon, the Sea Nymph at Jaluit Atoll, and an unnamed ship at Namdrik. There were no survivors from the Glencoe, and only one Sea Nymph crew member escaped.
European and American missionaries and traders had peaceful contact with the Marshallese beginning at Ebon Atoll in the mid-1850s. The atoll saw increased ship traffic and exposure to foreigners beginning, which also led to outbreaks of western diseases. In February 1859, an influenza outbreak killed several commoners on Ebon. In 1861, measles and influenza outbreaks occurred on the island, and in 1863, a typhoid fever outbreak killed several islanders.
In 1875, the British and German governments conducted a series of secret negotiations to divide the western Pacific in spheres of influence and counter American expansion in the region. Germany received northeastern New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and several island groups of Micronesia, including the Marshall Islands. On November 26, 1878, the German warship SMS Ariadne anchored at Jaluit to begin treaty negotiations with the iroij of the Ralik Chain. During the second day of negotiations, Captain Bartholomäus von Werner ordered his men to give a military demonstration featuring a bayonet charge, a rapid firing demonstration, and use of artillery blanks, which he later said was intended to "show the islanders, who have not seen anything like it before, the power of the Europeans." On November 29, Werner signed a treaty with Kabua and several other Ralik Chain iroij which granted the German Empire "most favored nation" status in the Ralik Chain and required iroij to guarantee the rights of German citizens. Germany secured a fuelling station at Jaluit and free use of the atoll's harbor for German vessels. The German authorities also recognized Kabua as the "King of the Ralik Islands," though the treaty required that disputes between Marshallese and Germans would be arbitrated by German ship captains.
Franz Hernsheim and other German business interests petitioned their government to annex the Marshall Islands into the German Empire. The United Kingdom was the primary naval power in the Pacific, and the British government agreed to German annexation of the Marshalls in exchange for German recognition of Britain's authority over the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. On August 29, 1885, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck authorized the creation of the German Protectorate of the Marshall Islands. Following the 1886 Anglo-German Declarations, Nauru fell within the German sphere of influence in Western Pacific and was incorporated into the Marshall Islands protectorate on April 16, 1888. Bismarck planned to leave the administration of colonies to chartered companies rather than having the German government directly administer overseas protectorates. Hernsheim & Co. and DHPG both initially opposed administering the colony, but relented to the German government in December 1887 and merged their interests to create the joint-stock Jaluit Company [de]. The new company began administering the colony in January 1888. The company had the right to be consulted on all new laws and ordinances and nominated all colonial administrative staff, subject to approval by the German chancellor.
On March 31, 1906, the German government assumed direct control and reorganized the Marshall Islands and Nauru as part of the protectorate of German New Guinea.
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the United Kingdom and Empire of Japan were allies. On August 7, the British Foreign Office requested that Japan help track down and destroy the German East Asia Squadron following reports of attacks on British ships. The request provided a pretext for the Imperial Japanese Navy to invade Germany's Pacific colonies in Micronesia and Shandong.
Japanese troops under Admiral Yamaya Tanin arrived at Enewetak on September 29, 1914, and Jaluit on September 30. An occupation force of three officers and 100 Japanese troops were stationed on Jaluit on October 3. In October, the British and Japanese governments agreed that Japan would be responsible for operations north of the equator, while British, Australian and New Zealander forces operated south of the equator. The agreement placed most of German Micronesia under Japanese military control, while Nauru came under British control.
In January 1919, Japanese delegate Makino Nobuaki proposed that Japan annex the Germany's Pacific island colonies at the Paris Peace Conference. Germany's Pacific colonies north of the equator became the Japanese South Seas Mandate, a Class C mandate, which due to small size, sparse population, remoteness, and low level of development was to be governed under Japanese laws as if it were an integral part of Japanese territory. Germany ceded the Marshall Islands to Japan with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919.
Following capture and occupation by the United States during World War II, the Marshall Islands, along with several other island groups located in Micronesia, passed formally to the United States under United Nations auspices in 1947 as part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 21.
From 1946 to 1958, the early years of the Cold War, the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons at its Pacific Proving Grounds located in the Marshall Islands, including the largest atmospheric nuclear test ever conducted by the U.S., code named Castle Bravo. "The bombs had a total yield of 108,496 kilotons, over 7,200 times more powerful than the atomic weapons used during World War II." With the 1952 test of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb, code named "Ivy Mike," the island of Elugelab in the Enewetak atoll was destroyed. In 1956, the United States Atomic Energy Commission regarded the Marshall Islands as "by far the most contaminated place in the world."
Nuclear claims between the U.S. and the Marshall Islands are ongoing, and health effects from these nuclear tests linger. Project 4.1 was a medical study conducted by the United States of those residents of the Bikini Atoll exposed to radioactive fallout. From 1956 to August 1998, at least $759 million was paid to the Marshallese Islanders in compensation for their exposure to U.S. nuclear weapon testing.
In 1979, the Government of the Marshall Islands was officially established and the country became self-governing.
In 1986, the Compact of Free Association with the United States entered into force, granting the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) its sovereignty. The Compact provided for aid and U.S. defense of the islands in exchange for continued U.S. military use of the missile testing range at Kwajalein Atoll. The independence procedure was formally completed under international law in 1990, when the UN officially ended the Trusteeship status pursuant to Security Council Resolution 683. The Republic was admitted to the UN in 1991.
In 2003, the US created a new Compact of Free Association for the Republic Marshall Islands and Micronesia, with funding of $3.5 billion to be made over the next 20 years.
See also: History of the Marshall Islands
Historical Timeline
- 1788 Visited by the British ships Charlotte and Scarborough.
- 1850's Missionaries activity begins
- 1885 Creation of the German Protectorate of the Marshall Islands
- 1888 Nauru include in the Protectorate
- 1906 Made part of the protectorate of German New Guinea
- 1914 Japanese invasion
- 1919 Japanese South Seas Mandate formed
- 1944 The American invasion of the Marshall Islands
- 1947 Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands formed
- 1979 Establishment of the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands
- 1986 The Marshall Islands signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States
- 1990 Trusteeship was ended
Demographics
See Also: Marshallese people
See Also: Demographics of the Marshall Islands
Ethnicities: Most residents of the Marshall Islands are Marshallese. Marshallese people are of Micronesian origin and are believed to have migrated from Asia to the Marshall Islands several thousand years ago. A minority of the Marshallese have Asian and European ancestry such as Japanese and German. A Majority have Polynesian and Melanesian ancestry. About one-half of the nation's population lives in Majuro and Ebeye Atolls
Language: The official languages of the Marshall Islands are English and Marshallese. Both languages are widely spoken.
See also: Marshallese language
Translation Tool: Translate
Religion: Christianity has been the main religion in the Marshall Islands ever since it was introduced by European missionaries in the 19th century.
The government generally supports the free practice of religion, although the minority Ahmadiyya Muslim community has reported some harassment and discrimination.
At the September 2021 census, approximately 96.2% of the population identified with one of fourteen established Christian denominations in the Marshall Islands. The denominations with more than 1,000 adherents included the United Church of Christ - Congregational in the Marshall Islands (47.9%), the Assemblies of God (14.1%), the Catholic Church (9.3%), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (5.7%), the Full Gospel Church of the Marshall Islands (5%) and Bukot nan Jesus (3%). The remainder of denominations primarily included protestant churches as well as Jehovah's Witnesses. 1,128 people, or 2.7% of respondents identified as belonging to a religion other than one of the fourteen denominations listed on the census form. 444 people, or 1.1% of respondents claimed to be irreligious.
In 2014 there were 150 members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
Marshall Island Naming Conventions
In the MARSHALL ISLANDS, children commonly hold their clan name or their grandparent’s first name as their last name, as a way to signify their relationship to the larger family.
This page was last modified 03:12, 17 February 2024. This page has been accessed 35 times.