The Federated States of Micronesia is a country in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. It is composed of four major island groups totaling 607 islands that lie just north of the equator about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Indonesia, to the north of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and to the south of the Marshall Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.
Regions
There are 4 states:
Cities
Ports and harbors
Understand
Climate
Tropical; heavy year-round rainfall, especially in the eastern islands; located on southern edge of the typhoon belt with occasionally severe damage; Natural hazards : typhoons (June to December).
Terrain
Islands vary geologically from high mountainous islands to low, coral atolls; volcanic outcroppings on Pohnpei, Kosrae, and Truk
; Highest point: Dolohmwar (Totolom) 791 m
History
; National holiday : Constitution Day, 10 May (1979)
; Constitution : 10 May 1979
In 1979 the Federated States of Micronesia, a UN Trust Territory under US administration, adopted a constitution. On 3 November 1986 independence was attained under a Compact of Free Association with the US; economic provisions of the Compact are being renegotiated.
; Independence : 3 November 1986 (from the US-administered UN Trusteeship)
Present concerns include large-scale unemployment, overfishing, and overdependence on US aid.
Get in
By plane
The major airline that travels to Micronesia is Continental Airlines, which operates a thrice-weekly "island hopper" flight (CO956 eastbound, CO957 westbound) traveling Honolulu—Majuro—Kwajalein—Kosrae—Pohnpei—Chuuk—Guam and vice versa. The flight is fourteen and a half hours, leaving in the early morning and terminating in the evening, with a stop of about one hour on each island. There are also nonstop flights from various islands to both Honolulu and Guam.
Honolulu is the most direct gateway into the islands from North America. Guam is the most direct gateway from most points in Asia and Australia, although it is also possible to fly into the islands from Manila via Palau.
By boat
The major international ports are; Chuuk,Pohnpei and Yap. There are inter-island trading ships based in these major ports which visits the outlying islands.
Get Around
Bus
Eventhough there are no bus scheduled service on the island, some buses are available to hire or charter. Also, on Yap there is a school bus that runs twice daily from Colonia to the villages.
Taxi
Taxi service is available throughout the islands and are inexpensive.
Car Hire
There are self-driven cars available in the major towns of the islands. However, It is required to have a National Driver's License or International Driving Permit.
Talk
; Languages : English (official and common language), Trukese, Pohnpeian, Yapese, Kosrean, Ulithian, Woleaian, Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi
Micronesia, from the Greek mikros (μικρός) (meaning small) and nisos (νήσος) (meaning island), is the name of a region in the Pacific Ocean. The Philippines lie to the northwest, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia to the west and southwest, and Polynesia to the 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 into eight nation-states and territories:
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 by the Spanish. These island territories were part of the Spanish East Indies and governed from Spanish Philippines since the early 17th century until 1898. Full European expansion did not come, however, until the late 19th century, when the area would be divided between:
During the 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 and Wake Island, which are U.S. territories, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which is a U.S. Commonwealth) are independent states.
Languages
The native languages of the various Micronesian indigenous peoples are classified under the Austronesian language family. Almost all of these languages belong to the Oceanic subgroup of this family; however, three exceptions are noted in Western Micronesia, which belong to the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup:
This latter subgroup also includes most 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 and Kapingamarangi represent an extreme westward extension of Polynesian.
External links
Schools
