Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands are part of Micronesia and lie in the central Pacific Ocean. The most famous island that belongs to the Marshall Islands is undoubtedly the Bikiniatoll. B. the bikini was named. The atoll is about 50 km northwest of the Majuro Atoll, on which the capital of the island state is located.

The islands were the scene of serious clashes between Japanese and Americans during World War II. After the war, the Americans used the region as a test station, where they carried out a total of over 60 atom bomb tests.

Nowadays the remains of the Second World War offer e.g. B. Divers an interesting diving area, together with the diverse underwater world.

Marshall Islands: History

The first Micronesians reached the island in the 2nd millennium BC. And called the islands "Our Land" (Aelon No AD). The exact place of origin of the settlers is not known.

From 1400 AD

According to Abbreviationfinder website, the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed in 1494 by Pope Alexander VI. signed between Spain and Portugal. This treaty was intended to prevent armed conflict between these two strictly Catholic countries. In this contract, an imaginary north-south line was drawn west of Cape Verde. All land discovered east of the line should go to Portugal, all west of it to Spain. For example, Portugal received Brazil on this basis.

In search of a western route to the Spice Islands, the Spaniard Alvaro Saaveedra discovered the Marshall Islands in 1529, which were named after the British captain William Marshall in 1788. In 1857, the Reverend Hiram Bingham (1875-1956) established a missionary station on Ebon.

A few years later, large trading companies, including some German ones, arrived on the islands. The German captain von Werner concluded a trade agreement with the natives on the Ralikkette in 1878. In 1885 the German government annexed the Marshall Islands with the help of Pope Leo XIII. and established a protectorate a year later.

From 1900

In 1914 the Japanese occupied the islands. They then received a mandate from the League of Nations in 1920. When the Japanese withdrew from the Bund in 1934, they began arming the islands of Mili, Jaluit, Malaelap, Wotje and Kwajalein as military bases.

The Allies invaded the region during World War II in 1943 and occupied the islands a year later. With the end of World War II in 1945, the USA gained control of the islands, where they carried out the first atomic bomb tests in 1946 and in the course of this had to evacuate the Bikini Atoll.

In February 1954 "Bravo", with an explosive force of 15 megatons, the largest hydrogen bomb that the USA ever detonated, was tested on Bikini Atoll. As a result, the residents of Rongelapese, Rongerik, Utirik and Ailinginae were evacuated. The first residents were only allowed to return to Rongelapese in 1957. However, for fear of the radiation, they left the island a few years later.

The independence of the state was prepared in 1965.

As a result, the first constitution of the Mashall Islands came into force on May 1, 1979, and in 1986 the Treaty with the USA (Compact of Free Association), which made the islands independent from the USA. The UN trusteeship over the islands expired in 1990. The Republic of the Marshall Islands then joined the UN in 1991.

In 2003 the contract with the USA, the Compact of Free Association, was renegotiated and extended for a further 20 years.