Marshall Islands Recent History
Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean, represented by two groups of islands. The first north-eastern group was called with the indigenous name of “Ratak”, which means “dawn”, and the second north-western group was called “Ralik”, that is “sunset”.
According to Abbreviationfinder, an acronym site which also features history of Marshall Islands, the first group was discovered in 1526 by the navigator Garcia de Loaysa while the Spaniard Saavedra in 1529 discovered Bikini, in the Ralik group. In 1767 they were visited by the English navigator Wallis; in 1788 the English captains Gilbert and Marshall discovered the island Mille south of the Ratak group and then continued north and called the entire group of islands Marshall.
In 1857 missionaries arrived in Ebon and in 1873 the first trading posts were built in the south.
In 1885/86 Germany made the annexation of the islands by placing the government in Jaluit.
During the First World War they were occupied by Japan.
During the Second World War the islands were the subject of bitter struggles between Americans and Japanese. In 1943 the United States sent two groups of aircraft carriers to attack the Japanese bases and the islands suffered repeated bombing throughout the year and in January 1944 parallel air strikes were launched on all the islands until, at the beginning of the second half of 1944 the Japanese were forced to yield.
After the war, on April 3, 1947 the islands were assigned by the United Nations in trusteeship to the United States.
Meanwhile, however, in 1946 the United States had carried out nuclear tests in the Bikini atoll and precisely because of this, animals and plants were completely destroyed. The inhabitants of the other islands applied to the United Nations to stop the experiments.
In 1954, 236 inhabitants of the Uterik and Rogelap islands were hit by radiation and had to be evacuated and hospitalized. Those of Uterik after two months were able to return to their homes while those of Rogelap were absent for three years.
The islands are still under US trusteeship, but local representatives assist the governor in the performance of his duties.
In 1983, still under the protectorate of the United States, even after having agreed an association agreement with them, they actually remained dependent until 1990. Then in September 1991 they joined the United Nations as a “sovereign state freely associated with the States. States “.
The legislative power of the islands was immediately decided that it should be carried out by an Elective Assembly, made up of 33 members, in office for 4 years, who also had the task of electing the President of the Republic.
In 1996, A. Kabua was still in this position, elected in 1988, who had therefore been confirmed for 4 consecutive times. In December of that year Kabua died and his successor was, in January 1997, his cousin I. Kabua.
In November 1999 the Democratic Union Party won the election and replaced the previous majority in the government.
