Facts about Micronesia

Palauans may represent many parts of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, but are traditionally considered to be Melanesian.

Micronesian folk music, like Polynesian music, is primarily vocal-based.

Eastern Micronesia was settled at about the same time, possibly by people from eastern Melanesia.

The population of Palau is approximately 19,000, 70 percent of whom are native Palauans, who are of mixed Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian descent.

Kiribati was inhabited by a single Micronesian ethnic group that spoke the same Oceanic language for 2000 years before coming into contact with Europeans.

On the eastern edge of the Federated States of Micronesia, the languages Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi represent an extreme westward extension of Polynesian languages.

The politics of Micronesia, with the exception of Nauru and Guam, takes place in a framework of a presidential, representative democratic pluriform multi-party system.

The Federated States of Micronesia consists of 607 islands extending 1800 miles (2900km) across the archipelago of the Caroline Islands east of the Philippines.

Micronesia, from the ancient Greek ?????? (small) and ????? (island), is the name of one of the three ethnogeographic areas (with Melanesia and Polynesia) of Oceania, a region in the Pacific Ocean.

The name Micronesia derives from the Greek mikros (??????), meaning small, and nesos (?????), meaning island.

United States Government assistance is the mainstay of the economy of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Blood type analysis has shown that Micronesians are distinct from Australian, Asiatic, and Polynesian races.

The native languages of the various Micronesian indigenous peoples are classified under the Austronesian language family.

Western Micronesia, comprising Palau and the Mariana Islands, was first settled about 3500 years ago, probably by people from Indonesia or the Philippines.

Micronesian music is based around mythology and ancient Micronesian rituals.

The term "Micronesia" was first proposed to distinguish the region in 1831 by Jules Dumont d'Urville.

Guam, the Northern Marianas, and the Caroline Islands (what would later become the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau) were colonized by the Spanish.

The Marshallese are of Micronesian origin and emigrated from Asia several thousand years ago.

All of Micronesia (with the exception of Guam and Wake Island, which are US territories, and the Northern Mariana Islands, which are a U.S. Commonwealth) are now independent states.