Micronesia Recent History

Micronesia, or “land of small islands” (from the Greek: Micros = small and Nesos = island), is the name given to all the small island groups north and north-east of Melanesia.

According to Abbreviationfinder, an acronym site which also features history of Micronesia, the Caroline Islands were discovered by Spanish navigators; they were then sold from Spain to Germany in 1899.

This united them with the Marianas and the Marshalls forming a colony which in 1919 passed into administration to Japan, on a temporary mandate from the League of Nations.

In 1945 they were occupied by American troops.
The Gilbert were discovered in the 18th century by the navigator Gilbert, from which they took their name.
In all, it is about 1500 islands mostly deserted. The largest is Guam, the southern island of the Mariana group and, although not incorporated, it is nevertheless US territory.

Since 1947 the League of Nations has entrusted them to the United States in trusteeship.

These 4 groups, or states, joined the Federation in 1979. Three years later they had signed a free association pact with the United States and this pact became executive in 1986.

In 1991 Micronesia joined the United Nations while maintaining the association pact with the United States on which it depended both for security and for the economy. In that same year there was a change at the top of the state and B. Olter replaced J. Haglelgam who had been President of the Republic since 1987.

Olter was also confirmed with the presidential elections in 1995 but two years later he had to resign for health reasons.

He was replaced by J. Nena who fulfilled his mandate until May 1999 when he won the renewed L. Falcam elections.