80-452: Micronesian describes something of, from, or related to Micronesia , a subregion of Oceania composed of hundreds of small islands in the Pacific Ocean. Micronesian may refer to: Micronesia Micronesia ( UK : / ˌ m aɪ k r ə ˈ n iː z i ə / , US : /- ˈ n iː ʒ ə / ) is a subregion of Oceania , consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in
160-567: A prehistoric seaborne migration , known as the Austronesian expansion , from pre- Han Formosa , at around 3000 to 1500 BCE. Austronesians reached the northernmost Philippines , specifically the Batanes Islands , by around 2200 BCE. Austronesians were the first people to invent oceangoing sailing technologies (notably catamarans , outrigger boats , lashed-lug boat building , and the crab claw sail ), which enabled their rapid dispersal into
240-612: A Spanish expedition under Ferdinand Magellan reached the Marianas. This contact is recorded in Antonio Pigafetta 's chronicle of Magellan's voyage, in which he recounts that the Chamorro people had no apparent knowledge of people outside of their island group. A Portuguese account of the same voyage suggests that the Chamorro people who greeted the travellers did so "without any shyness as if they were good acquaintances". Further contact
320-404: A coral reef, which is exposed at low tide and dotted with pinnacles. The presence of the reef has prevented the establishment of a seaport , although channels in the reef allow small boats access to the island. A fertile coastal strip 150 to 300 m (490 to 980 ft) wide lies inland from the beach. Wake Island is a coral atoll with a coastline of 19 km (12 mi) just north of
400-805: A mandate to Japan and were named the South Seas Mandate . During World War II , Nauru and Ocean Island were occupied by Japanese troops, with also an occupation of some of the Gilbert Islands and were bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. Following Japan's defeat in World War II its mandate became a United Nations Trusteeship administered by the United States as the Trust Territory of
480-526: A number of species occur over that range, but are not found in the Atlantic Ocean . The region has an exceptionally high species richness , with the world's highest species richness being found in at its heart in the Coral Triangle , and a remarkable gradient of decreasing species richness radiating outward in all directions. The region includes over 3,000 species of fish, compared with around 1,200 in
560-521: A time. However, they tend to stay mainly at ports of entry and are too few in number to be counted as a major source of income. Copra production used to be a more significant source of income, however, world prices have dropped in part to large palm plantations that are now planted in places like Borneo . The people today form many ethnicities, but all are descended from and belong to the Micronesian culture. Because of this mixture of descent, many of
640-535: A year earlier. Micronesia is a region in Oceania that includes approximately 2100 islands, with a total land area of 2,700 km (1,000 sq mi), the largest of which is Guam , which covers 582 km (225 sq mi). The total ocean area within the perimeter of the islands is 7,400,000 km (2,900,000 sq mi). There are four main island groups in Micronesia: This does not include
720-643: Is also "symbiotically linked" with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue —an informal grouping of like-minded democracies in the region, comprising Australia , India , Japan , and the United States . Since 2011, the term "Indo-Pacific" is being used increasingly in geopolitical discourse. In 2013, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa proposed an "Indo-Pacific Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" to restore trust, manage unresolved territory disputes, and help countries deal with change in
800-461: Is little seasonal temperature variation. The dry season runs from December or January to June and the rainy season from July to November or December. Because of the location of some islands, the rainy season can sometimes include typhoons . The Northern Mariana Islands were the first islands in Oceania colonized by the Austronesian peoples . They were settled by the voyagers who sailed eastwards from
880-461: Is nothing to suggest any kind of settlement. The majority of the islands in the area are part of a coral atoll . Coral atolls begin as coral reefs that grow on the slopes of a central volcano . When the volcano sinks back down into the sea, the coral continues to grow, keeping the reef at or above water level. One exception is Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia , which still has
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#1732844073255960-456: Is only about 2.1 metres (7 ft) above low tide level. Nauru is an oval-shaped island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, 42 km (26 mi) south of the Equator , listed as the world's smallest republic , covering just 21 km (8 sq mi). With 12,511 residents, it is the third least-populated country , after Vatican City and Tuvalu . The island is surrounded by
1040-772: Is sometimes extended even further to include Chile's Desventuradas Islands and Juan Fernández Islands . The Western Indo-Pacific covers the western and central portion of the Indian Ocean, including Africa's east coast, the Red Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Persian Gulf , the Arabian Sea , the Bay of Bengal , and the Andaman Sea , as well as the coastal waters surrounding Madagascar , Seychelles ,
1120-569: The Carolines to the south. The Chamorro language is included in the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian family. Because Guam was colonized by Spain for over 300 years, many words derive from the Spanish language . The traditional Chamorro number system was replaced by Spanish numbers. The Chuukese people are an ethnic group in Oceania . They constitute 48% of the population of
1200-527: The Carolinian people may have originally immigrated from the Asian mainland and Indonesia to Micronesia around 2,000 years ago. Their primary language is Carolinian , called Refaluwasch by native speakers, which has a total of about 5,700 speakers. The Carolinians have a matriarchal society in which respect is a very important factor in their daily lives, especially toward the matriarchs . Most Carolinians are of
1280-859: The Comoros , the Mascarene Islands , Maldives , and the Chagos Archipelago . Some seashore and coastal plants are found throughout most of the region, including the trees Pisonia grandis , Calophyllum inophyllum , Heliotropium arboreum , Pandanus tectorius , Cordia subcordata , Guettarda speciosa , and the shrubs Scaevola taccada , Suriana maritima , and Pemphis acidula . These plants have adapted to grow on coral sand, and have seeds adapted to crossing salt water, including distribution by birds or which can survive floating in salt water. The trees coconut ( Coco nucifera ), candlenut ( Aleurites moluccanus ), and Morinda citrifolia originated in
1360-493: The Coral Triangle , which contains 76% of all known coral species in the world. The Eastern Indo-Pacific surrounds the mostly volcanic islands of the central Pacific Ocean, extending from the Marshall Islands in the west through central and southeastern Polynesia to Hawaii , to the west coast of Chile . The World Wide Fund for Nature believe the region ends at Chile's Easter Island and Isla Salas y Gómez , although it
1440-451: The Federated States of Micronesia . Their language is Chuukese . The home atoll of Chuuk is also known by the former name Truk. The Nauruan people are an ethnicity inhabiting the Pacific island of Nauru . They are most likely a blend of other Pacific peoples . Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth . In a narrow sense, sometimes known as
1520-732: The Gilbert Islands , the Mariana Islands , and the Marshall Islands — as well as numerous islands that are not part of any archipelago. Political control of areas within Micronesia varies depending on the island, and is distributed among six sovereign nations. Some of the Caroline Islands are part of the Republic of Palau and some are part of the Federated States of Micronesia (often shortened to "FSM" or "Micronesia"—not to be confused with
1600-851: The Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia , it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean , the western and central Pacific Ocean , and the seas connecting the two. It does not include the temperate and polar regions of the Indian and Pacific oceans, nor the Tropical Eastern Pacific , along the Pacific coast of the Americas , which is also a distinct marine realm . The term is especially useful in marine biology , ichthyology , and similar fields, since many marine habitats are continuously connected from Madagascar to Japan and Oceania , and
1680-851: The Kerguelen Islands and Seychelles , the Malay Archipelago (which is within the bounds of both the Indian Ocean and the Pacific), Japan , Russia and other Far East nations bordering the Pacific, Australia and all the Pacific Islands east of them, as well as Pacific nations of the Americas such as Canada or Mexico . ASEAN countries (defined as those in Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago) are considered to be geographically at
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#17328440732551760-502: The Marshall Islands . It is an unorganized , unincorporated territory of the United States. Access to the island is restricted and all activities on the island are managed by the United States Air Force . While geographically adjacent, it is not ethnoculturally part of Micronesia, due to its historical lack of human inhabitation. Micronesians may have possibly visited Wake Island in prehistoric times to harvest fish, but there
1840-714: The Philippines in approximately 1500 BCE. These populations gradually moved southwards until they reached the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands by 1300 BCE and reconnected with the Lapita culture of the southeast migration branch of Austronesians moving through coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia . By 1200 BCE, they again began crossing open seas beyond inter-island visibility, reaching Vanuatu , Fiji , and New Caledonia ; before continuing eastwards to become
1920-472: The Roman Catholic faith. The immigration of Carolinians to Saipan began in the early 19th century, after the Spanish reduced the local population of Chamorro natives to just 3,700. They began to immigrate mostly sailing from small canoes from other islands, which a typhoon previously devastated. The Carolinians have a much darker complexion than the native Chamorros . The Chamorro people are
2000-588: The United Nations Trust Territory System, with the United States as Trustee. In 1976, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States entered into a covenant of political union under which commonwealth status was granted the Northern Mariana Islands and its residents received United States citizenship. The Marshall Islands are located north of Nauru and Kiribati , east of the Federated States of Micronesia , and south of
2080-492: The indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands , which are politically divided between the United States territory of Guam and the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. The Chamorro are commonly believed to have come from Southeast Asia at around 2000 BC . They are most closely related to other Austronesian natives to the west in the Philippines and Taiwan , as well as
2160-749: The 2017 National Security Strategy , the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review , and the 2018 National Defense Strategy . According to Felix Heiduk and Gudrun Wacker at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs , the concept of a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" is aimed at containing China and the "Indo-Pacific" is "primarily understood as a U.S.-led containment strategy directed against China" in Beijing. Australian scholar Rory Medcalf has argued that "The Indo-Pacific...does not exclude or contain China, though it does dilute China’s influence." It has been argued that
2240-813: The Central Indo-Pacific, and were spread further across the region by human settlers. The Indo-West Pacific has been a hub of economic activity since ancient times. The entrance of the European colonial powers, such as the Dutch and British East India Companies and the Portuguese, and the launch of a trans-Pacific transport of slaves , migrants, and goods, created a deeper Indo-Pacific economic integration. The "Indo-Pacific" has been an economic idea since its early formulation in Weimar Germany . According to Hansong Li,
2320-564: The German geographer Karl Haushofer , son of the economist Max Haushofer, believed that capital , along with urbanisation and population growth , are key vectors that determine the 'manometers' of the oceanic region. Haushofer also explained why industrialisation broke out in Europe rather than the Indo-Pacific by a spatial theory of demography. In the 21st century, with the rising involvement of
2400-625: The Gilberts, including the island of Tarawa , the site of the country's capital. The Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of fifteen volcanic mountains. The island chain arises as a result of the western edge of the Pacific Plate moving westward and plunging downward below the Mariana plate , a region that is the most volcanically active convergent plate boundary on Earth. The Marianas were politically divided in 1898, when
2480-532: The Indo-Pacific as relatively unstructured biogeographic realm - possibly the world's largest. Below are briefly described the 3 MEOW realms of the Indo-Pacific: The Central Indo-Pacific includes the numerous seas and straits connecting the Indian and Pacific oceans, including the seas surrounding the Indonesian archipelago (with the exception of Sumatra 's northwest coast, which is part of
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2560-476: The Indo-Pacific region, President Trump and Prime Minister Modi agreed that a close partnership between the United States and India is central to peace and stability in the region. In marking 70 years of diplomatic relations between India and the United States, the leaders resolved to expand and deepen the strategic partnership between the countries and advance common objectives. Above all, these objectives include combatting terrorist threats, promoting stability across
2640-582: The Indo-Pacific region, increasing free and fair trade, and strengthening energy linkages". However, President Trump's November 2017 articulation on Indo-Pacific was widely seen as something that would usher in a new (US–China) Cold War. This led to the Indian Prime Minister spelling out the Indian vision of Indo-Pacific as an enabler for "a common pursuit of progress and prosperity... not directed against any country... (albeit based on) our principled commitment to rule of law". According to Dr. Cenk Tamer,
2720-611: The Mariana Islands, and other possessions to Germany. Under German control, the islands became a protectorate and were administered from German New Guinea . Nauru had already been annexed and claimed as a colony by Germany in 1888. In the early 20th century, the islands of Micronesia were divided between three foreign powers: During World War I , Germany's Pacific island territories were seized and became League of Nations mandates in 1923. Nauru became an Australian mandate, while Germany's other territories in Micronesia were given as
2800-721: The Northern Marianas the only islands in Oceania where rice was grown prior to European contact. However, it was considered a high-status crop and only used in rituals. It did not become a staple until after Spanish colonization . Construction of Nan Madol , a megalithic complex made from basalt lava logs in Pohnpei, began in around 1180 CE. This was followed by the construction of the Leluh complex in Kosrae in around 1200. The earliest known contact with Europeans occurred in 1521, when
2880-581: The Northwestern Pacific Ocean . It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples . The region has a tropical marine climate and is part of the Oceanian realm . It includes four main archipelagos —the Caroline Islands ,
2960-553: The Pacific Islands . Nauru became independent in 1968. Today, most of Micronesia are independent states, except for the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , Guam and Wake Island , which are U.S. territories. The Pacific Community (SPC) is a regional intergovernmental organization whose membership includes both nations and territories in the Pacific Ocean and their metropolitan powers. Nationally,
3040-516: The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Together, all the countries included within the framework represent 40% of the world GDP. The IPEF contains four pillars: Historical precedent for the Indo-Pacific as a politically contested space comes from ancient times; in the European colonial era, commercial interests led to conquest by powers such as the Dutch and British East India Companies throughout
3120-683: The Republic of the Marshall Islands. The sovereignty of Wake Island is contested: it is claimed both by the United States and by the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The United States has actual possession of Wake Island, which is under the immediate administration of the United States Air Force . Notwithstanding the fact that the notion of "Micronesia" has been quite well established since 1832 and has been used ever since, by most popular works, this set does not correspond to any geomorphological, archaeological, linguistic, ethnic or cultural unity, but on
3200-455: The U.S. seeks to create an "anti-China axis" in the Asia-Pacific region through the conceptualization of the Indo-Pacific because it sees India as a key part in containing China. This was reiterated by President Biden , who declared a "secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific." Tamer calls the Indo-Pacific a concept that started to gain ground in international relations as a geopolitical challenge by
3280-519: The U.S. territory of Wake Island . The islands consist of 29 low-lying atolls and 5 isolated islands, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets . The atolls and islands form two groups: the Ratak Chain and the Ralik Chain (meaning "sunrise" and "sunset" chains). All the islands in the chain are part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands , a presidential republic in free association with
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3360-410: The U.S. toward China. The term was also used in 2019 by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in its statement ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), though the bloc also still uses the longstanding term "Asia-Pacific" which is preferred by China and Russia. Its use by ASEAN is arguably an attempt by the bloc at balance-of-power hedging between competing visions for the region between
3440-424: The US and China. However, it is also clear that ASEAN does not share the exact same understanding of the term as the US, and its AOIP statement specifically states that it envisions continuing to play a "central and strategic role" in the region. The Australian Citizens Party , a minor party associated with the US-led Rouche movement , criticises the "Indo-Pacific" vision as a reenactment of Nazi strategy, given
3520-408: The United States acquired title to Guam under the Treaty of Paris, 1898 , which ended the Spanish–American War . Spain then sold the remaining northerly islands to Germany in 1899. Germany lost all of her colonies at the end of World War I and the Northern Mariana Islands became a League of Nations Mandate, with Japan as the mandatory. After World War II , the islands were transferred into
3600-489: The United States in the new growth areas of Asia, the idea of the Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor (IPEC) emerged during the U.S.–India Strategic Dialogue of 2013. The Secretary of State John Kerry referred to the potential of the Indo-Pacific Economic Corridor in transforming the prospects for development and investments as well as for trade and transit between the economies of South and Southeast Asia Indo-Pacific economic corridor. K. Yhome in his scholarly study has mapped out
3680-416: The United States, and the $ 150 million the US paid into a trust fund for reparations of residents of Bikini Atoll who had to move after nuclear testing. Few mineral deposits worth exploiting exist, except for some high-grade phosphate, especially on Nauru . Most residents of Micronesia can freely move to and work within, the United States. Relatives working in the US who send money home to relatives represent
3760-480: The United States. Having few natural resources, the islands' wealth is based on a service economy , as well as some fishing and agriculture . Of the 29 atolls, 24 of them are inhabited. Bikini Atoll is an atoll in the Marshall Islands. There are 23 islands in the Bikini Atoll. The islands of Bokonijien, Aerokojlol and part of Nam were destroyed during nuclear tests that occurred there. The islands are composed of low coral limestone and sand. The average elevation
3840-429: The Western Indo-Pacific), the South China Sea , the Philippine Sea , the north coast of Australia , and the seas surrounding New Guinea , western and central Micronesia , New Caledonia , the Solomon Islands , Vanuatu , Fiji , and Tonga . The Central Indo-Pacific, due in part to its central location at the meeting of two oceans, has the greatest richness and diversity of marine organisms, specifically located within
3920-463: The Yap islands occurred in 1625. In the early 17th century Spain colonized Guam , the Northern Marianas and the Caroline Islands (what would later become the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau), creating the Spanish East Indies , which was governed from the Spanish Philippines . When Russian explorer Otto von Kotzebue visited the Marshall Islands in 1817, he noted that Marshallese families practiced infanticide after
4000-443: The ancestors of the Polynesian people . Further migrations by other Austronesians also followed, likely from Sulawesi , settling Palau and Yap by around 1000 BCE. The details of this colonization, however, are not very well known. In 200 BCE, a loosely connected group of Lapita colonists from Island Melanesia also migrated back northwards, settling the islands of eastern Micronesia almost simultaneously. This region became
4080-486: The birth of a third child as a form of population planning due to frequent famines . In 1819, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions —a Protestant group—brought their Puritan ways to Polynesia. Soon after, the Hawaiian Missionary Society was founded and sent missionaries into Micronesia. Conversion was not met with as much opposition, as the local religions were less developed (at least according to Western ethnographic accounts). In contrast, it took until
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#17328440732554160-446: The center of another wave of migrations radiating outwards, reconnecting them with other settled islands in western Micronesia. Around 800 CE, a second wave of migrants from Southeast Asia arrived in the Marianas, beginning what is now known as the Latte period . These new settlers built large structures with distinctive capped stone pillars known as haligi . They also reintroduced rice (which did not survive earlier voyages), making
4240-463: The central volcano and coral reefs around it. The Yap Islands host a number of endemic bird species, including the Yap monarch and the Olive white-eye , in addition to four other restricted-range bird species. The endangered Yap flying-fox , though often considered a subspecies of the Pelew flying fox or the Mariana fruit bat , is also endemic to Yap. The region has a tropical marine climate moderated by seasonal northeast trade winds . There
4320-685: The centre of the political Indo-Pacific. The WWF and Nature Conservancy divide the Indo-Pacific into 3 realms (or subrealms), and each of these into 25 marine provinces and 77 ecoregions ( Marine Ecoregions of the World ; MEOW) based on data-driven expert opinion. Other schemes for subdivision of the Indo-Pacific have included: 5 provinces, based on endemism in fishes; 3 regions split into 10 provinces based on dissimilarity of fish assemblages, 11 provinces based on range boundaries in corals, 12 divisions split into 124 ecoregions based on biogeographic clustering from coral distributions and finally 8 realms from distributions of 65,000 marine species. All but
4400-410: The chain with Kosrae being the most eastern; and Palau consisting of 250 islands on the western side. The Gilbert Islands are a chain of sixteen atolls and coral islands, arranged in an approximate north-to-south line. In a geographical sense, the equator serves as the dividing line between the northern Gilbert Islands and the southern Gilbert Islands. The Republic of Kiribati contains all of
4480-399: The concept of the Indo-Pacific may lead to a change in popular "mental maps" of how the world is understood in strategic terms. The term's profile was raised when it found mention in the joint statement issued by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump after the former's state visit to the White House on 26 June 2017. "As responsible stewards in
4560-473: The concept's link to Karl Haushofer. Former Prime Minister of Australia Paul Keating , in a televised address at the National Press Club , criticised the notion of the "Indo-Pacific" as a construct of the United States in its diplomatic war with China: The United States says, well, that's all very interesting. But look, if you behave yourself, you Chinese. You can be a stakeholder in our system. And look, you wouldn't have to be Xi Jinping or anybody, to take
4640-434: The contrary represents a disparate ensemble, with no real deep unity. In fact, "Micronesian people" does not exist as a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people , who may also include the Polynesian people and the hypothetical Australo-Melanesian or " Melanesian people". Human settlement of Micronesia began several millennia ago. Based on the current scientific consensus, the Austronesian peoples originated from
4720-504: The end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries for missionaries to fully convert the inhabitants of Melanesia; however, a comparison of the cultural contrast must take into account the fact that Melanesia has always had deadly strains of malaria present in various degrees and distributions throughout its history (see De Rays Expedition ) and up to the present; conversely, Micronesia does not have—and never seems to have had—any malarial mosquitos nor pathogens on any of its islands in
4800-455: The ethnicities of Micronesia feel closer to some groups in Melanesia , or the Philippines . A good example of this are the Yapese people who are related to Austronesian tribes in the northern Philippines . Genetics also show a significant number of Micronesian have Japanese paternal ancestry: 9.5% of males from Micronesia as well as 0.2% in East Timor carry the Haplogroup D-M55 . There are also substantial Asian communities found across
4880-456: The identical name for the overall region). The Gilbert Islands (along with the Phoenix Islands and the Line Islands in Polynesia) comprise the Republic of Kiribati . The Mariana Islands are affiliated with the United States; some of them belong to the U.S. Territory of Guam and the rest belong to the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands . The island of Nauru is its own sovereign nation. The Marshall Islands all belong to
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#17328440732554960-453: The islands of the Indo-Pacific . From 2000 BCE they assimilated (or were assimilated by) the earlier populations on the islands in their migration pathway. The earliest known contact of Europeans with Micronesia was in 1521, when Magellan expedition landed in the Marianas . Jules Dumont d'Urville is usually credited with coining the term "Micronesia" in 1832, but in fact, Louis Domeny de Rienzi [ fr ] used this term
5040-456: The last of these schemes were tested against one another by an international consortium of marine scientists using genetic data from 56 Indo-Pacific species, with the reasoning that genetic data should reflect the evolutionary processes that structure the Indo-Pacific. While there was no clear winning scheme, and all schemes were supported by data from at least one species, the genetic data in general favored schemes with few subdivisions, supporting
5120-408: The late 2010s, the term "Indo-Pacific" has been increasingly used in geopolitical discourse. It has a "symbiotic link" with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue , or "Quad", an informal grouping between Australia , Japan, India , and the United States . It has been argued that the concept may lead to a change in popular "mental maps" of how the world is understood in strategic terms. According to
5200-404: The loss of the administrative center of Manila and indefensible after the loss of two Spanish fleets in the war. The Spanish government therefore decided to sell the remaining islands to a new colonial power: the German Empire . The treaty, which was signed by Spanish Prime Minister Francisco Silvela on 12 February 1899, transferred the Caroline Islands (Kosrae in the east to Palau in the west),
5280-407: The maritime domination of Britain, the United States, and Western Europe. The Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe referred to the "confluence" of the Indian and Pacific Oceans in his speech to the Indian Parliament in August 2007 as "the dynamic coupling as seas of freedom and of prosperity" in the "broader Asia". The focus of Japanese Prime Minister's August 2007 speech in the Indian Parliament
5360-520: The next richest marine region, the Western Atlantic , and around 500 species of reef building corals, compared with about 50 species in the Western Atlantic. The term first appeared in academic use in oceanography and geopolitics . Scholarship has shown that the "Indo-Pacific" concept circulated in Weimar Germany , and spread to interwar Japan. German political oceanographers envisioned an "Indo-Pacific" comprising anticolonial India and republican China, as German allies, against "Euro-America". Since
5440-456: The past. In the Spanish–American War , Spain lost many of its remaining colonies. In the Pacific, the United States took possession of the Spanish Philippines and Guam. On 17 January 1899, the United States also took possession of unclaimed and uninhabited Wake Island. This left Spain with the remainder of the Spanish East Indies, about 6,000 tiny islands that were sparsely populated and not very productive. These islands were ungovernable after
5520-506: The political scientist Amitav Acharya, the "Indo-Pacific" was a concept built by strategists. The Indo-Pacific started to gain ground in international relations literature as a geopolitical challenge by the U.S. toward China. In its widest sense, the term geopolitically covers all nations and islands surrounding either the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, encompassing mainland African and Asian nations who border these oceans, such as India and South Africa , Indian Ocean territories such as
5600-495: The potential for various emerging trans-regional corridors in Asia along with the challenges of linking IPEC into the larger web of regional economic integration initiatives taking shape in the region in 2017. On 23 May 2022, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). This agreement includes a dozen of initial partners including: Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand,
5680-403: The primary income is the sale of fishing rights to foreign nations that harvest tuna using huge purse seiners . A few Japanese long liners still ply the waters. The crews aboard fishing fleets contribute little to the local economy since their ships typically set sail loaded with stores and provisions that are cheaper than local goods. Additional money comes in from government grants, mostly from
5760-430: The primary source of individual income. Additional individual income comes mainly from government jobs and work within shops and restaurants. The tourist industry consists mainly of scuba divers that come to see the coral reefs, do wall dives and visit sunken ships from WWII. Major stops for scuba divers in approximate order are Palau, Chuuk, Yap and Pohnpei. Some private yacht owners visit the area for months or years at
5840-509: The region, most notably in the Northern Mariana Islands where they form the majority and smaller communities of Europeans who have migrated from the United States or are descendants of settlers during European colonial rule in Micronesia. Though they are all geographically part of the same region, they all have very different colonial histories. The US-administered areas of Micronesia have a unique experience that sets them apart from
5920-697: The region. The German geopolitician Karl Haushofer first used "Indo-Pacific" in the 1920s in multiple works on geography and geopolitics : Geopolitics of the Pacific Ocean (1924), Building Blocks of Geopolitics (1928), Geopolitics of Pan-Ideas (1931), and German Cultural Politics in the Indo-Pacific Space (1939). Haushofer legitimated the integration of the two oceans by evidence in marine biology , oceanography , ethnography , and historical philology . He envisioned an "Indo-Pacific" comprising anticolonial forces in India and China, as Germany's ally against
6000-586: The region. In 2013, U.S. officials have begun using the term "Indo-Asia Pacific". In 2019, the United States Department of State published a document formalizing the concept of a " Free and Open Indo-Pacific ", to be sustained among members of "the Quad", a partnership of four Indo-Pacific democracies led by the United States, in concert with Australia, India, and Japan. "Indo-Pacific" has also featured prominently in top-level U.S. strategic documents such as
6080-463: The rest of the Pacific. Micronesia has great economic dependency on its former or current motherlands, something only comparable to the French Pacific. Sometimes, the term American Micronesia is used to acknowledge the difference in cultural heritage. A 2011 survey found that 93.1% of Micronesian are Christians ; a survey in 2022 showed that 99% were Christian. It is thought that ancestors of
6160-411: The separate island nation of Nauru , along with other distinctly separate islands and smaller island groups. The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago consisting of about 500 small coral islands , north of New Guinea and east of the Philippines . The Carolines consist of two nations: the Federated States of Micronesia , consisting of approximately 600 islands on the eastern side of
6240-505: The term Indo-Pacific acquired salience within the Indian government and has since been used often by India's apex political leadership. From about 2011 onwards, the term has been used frequently by strategic analysts and high-level government/military leadership in Australia, Japan and the United States to denote said region. However, a formal/official documented articulation of the term first appeared in Australia's Defence White Paper, 2013. It
6320-495: Was made during the sixteenth century, although often initial encounters were very brief. Documents relating to the 1525 voyage of Diogo da Rocha suggest that he made the first European contact with inhabitants of the Caroline Islands, possibly staying on the Ulithi atoll for four months and encountering Yap . Marshall Islanders were encountered by the expedition of Spanish navigator Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón in 1529. Other contact with
6400-701: Was on security of sea lanes linking the two oceans. In the academic discourse relating to such maritime security issue in the Indo-Pacific, the first articulation was carried by a paper published in January 2007 by the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi. It was a result of consultations between IDSA and the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) held in New Delhi in October 2006. From 2010 onwards,
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