What is Micronesia

The term Micronesia refers to small islands in the western and northern Pacific. Specific uses vary over time, context, and which islands or groups are included. It does not represent a comprehensive or consistent social, linguistic, political or cultural grouping.

Region within the Pacific

A term to characterize "many small islands," Micronesia was initially used to distinguish the portion of the Pacific north of Melanesia and northwest of Polynesia. This included the Marianas, Palau, Caroline, and Marshall Islands. Narau, a single island south of the equator, and the Gilberts (now Kiribati), which are further to the east and include some islands south of the equator, are sometimes included in this use of the term.

Island and Atolls within the Former Japanese South Seas

Japan was granted a mandate over former German Colonies of the Palau, Caroline, Marshalls and Marianas chains (save Guam) as well as by the League of Nation after the First World War. In this Japanese Period (1914-1941), the island were called Nan'yō Gunto ("South Sea Islands") and were administered by the “Nan'yō Cho,” or South Seas Government. Though all situated north of the equator they were south of metropolitan Japan.

Islands and Atolls within the former US Trust Territory

The United States liberated the Marianas, Palau, Caroline, and Marshall Islands islands during the Second World War, and administered them through a United Nations authorized Trusteeship. "Micronesia" served as shorthand for the region covered within this Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI).

The Freely Associated States

The Freely Associated States, or FAS, are three nations that became independent after the end of the Trust Territory. These countries, the Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, all signed similar Compacts of Free Association, or COFA, with the United States.

The Federated States of Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM, is a heterogenous nation of four states and five distinct cultural groups situated to the east of Palau and west of the Marshalls. It is one of the three nations in Free Association with the United States. "Micronesia" is often used as shorthand for the FSM.

The geographic term "Caroline Islands" and its subunits of Western Caroline Islands, Central Caroline Islands, and Eastern Caroline Islands more accurately reflect cultural groupings within today's FSM. More specifically, individuals from and in the FSM primarily identify and characterize themselves not as Micronesians, but as Yapese, Outer Islanders, Chuukese, Pohnpeians and Kosraean.

Inclusion of Guam

The Island of Guam is the largest and most southernly part of the Marianas. Guam is also the largest landmass in the Western Pacific.

The Marianas were discovered and claimed by the Spanish though their presence and development was primarily limited to the Island of Guam. Spanish permanence on Guam was also part of its justification for its colonial claim to the Palau, Caroline and Marshall Islands to the south.

Spain sold the Palau, Caroline and Marshall Islands to Germany after the Spanish-American War. The Marianas were also sold, with the exception of Guam, which would serve as a waypoint and communication link to the Philippines (acquired by the US in that war). Guam had been seized by the United States during the conflict in 1898.

Guam, unlike the remainder of the Marianas, was not part of the Japanese Mandate, having not been a former German Colony, though it lay near the Nan'yō geographic center. Japan attacked and invaded Guam early in the War in the Pacific, but Guam was not part of the post-war Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, as it was not within the former Japanese Mandate. When the TTPI was ended, and plebiscites were held, islanders living in Marianias north of Guam (those within the TTPI) choose Commonwealth Status rather than Free Association. Those islands (all of the Marianas chain save Guam) now comprise the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) .

Geographically, and in terms of pre-contact culture, Guam is an integral part of the Marianas, which are one of the four island groupings initially termed "Micronesia." Practically, it is situated near the center of the region and serves as a travel and logistics hub for the Western Pacific. The greater presence of Spanish and then American influences, as well as its strategic location, resulted in significant differentiation from other islands within the Marianas and the broader region. In the past, particularly during the TTPI period, some Chamorros and Americans on Guam stressed that Guam was not part of Micronesia, though more recently there has been an increasing articulation of Guam's situation -and importance- within it.