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Micronesia
*** Shopping-Tip: Micronesia
{{dablink|This article is about the greater region. For the independent state, see
Federated States of Micronesia.}}
Image:Micronesia-large.png thumb|right|350px|Location of Micronesia.
'''Micronesia''', from the
ancient Greek ''μικÏ?ος'' (small) and ''νησος'' (island), is the name of a region in the
Pacific Ocean. The
Philippines lie to the west,
Indonesia to the south west,
Papua New Guinea and
Melanesia to the south, and
Polynesia to the south-east and east.
Geography and history
This region of
Oceania 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 between eight territories:
* the
Federated States of Micronesia (sometimes referred to simply as "Micronesia", or alternatively abbreviated "FSM");
* the
Marshall Islands Republic of the Marshall Islands;
* the
Palau Republic of Palau;
* the
Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands;
* the
Nauru Republic of Nauru;
* the
Kiribati Republic of Kiribati;
* the
Guam Territory of Guam.
* the
Wake Island Territory of 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 on by the Spanish. Full European expansion did not come, however, until the late 19th century, when the area would be divided between:
* the
United States, which took Guam and Wake Island;
*
German Empire Germany, which took Nauru and the Marshall, Caroline, and Northern Mariana Islands; ''and''
* the
British Empire, which took the
Gilbert Islands (Kiribati).
During the
World War I 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, the Northern Mariana Islands and Wake Island, which are U.S. territories) are independent states.
Languages
The native languages of the various Micronesian
indigenous peoples are classified under the
Austronesian languages Austronesian language family. Almost all of these languages belong to the
Oceanic languages Oceanic subgroup of this family; however, three exceptions are noted in Western Micronesia, which belong to the
Western Malayo-Polynesian languages Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup:
*
Chamorro language Chamorro in the
Mariana Islands,
*
Yapese language Yapese in the Federated States of Micronesia, and
*
Palauan language Palauan in
Palau.
This latter subgroup also includes quite a few 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 language Nukuoro and
Kapingamarangi language Kapingamarangi represent an extreme westward extension of
Polynesian languages Polynesian.
See also
*
Micronesian music
References
* {{cite book | last = Kirch | first = Patrick Vinton | title=On the Road of the Winds. An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact | publisher=University of California Press | year=2000 | id=ISBN 0-520-22347-0 | pages = pp. 166-167 }}
External links
-
Map of Micronesia
-
Moon Handbooks Micronesia
-
myMicronesia.com
-
Micronesia conservation and nature
{{Region}}
Category:Islands
Category:Biodiversity hotspots
Category:Micronesia
Category:Oceania
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fr:Micronésie (région)
he:×ž×™×§×¨×•× ×–×™×”
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ko:미�로네시아
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{{Oceania-geo-stub}}
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Category:Oceania
ca:Categoria:Micronèsia
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nl:Categorie:Micronesië
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ru:КатегориÑ?:МикронезиÑ?
*** Shopping-Tip: Micronesia
