Micronesia

Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a cultural history closely shared with the three island regions of the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south, and the wider Austronesian community.

The region has a tropical oceanic climate and is part of the Oceanian Realm. This includes the four major archipelago, the Caroline Islands, Gilbert Islands, Mariana Islands, and Marshall Islands, as well as many islands that are not part of the archipelago.

The political dominance of the region within Micronesia varies from island to island and is dispersed among six sovereign states. Part of the Caroline Islands is part of the Republic of Palau and part of the Federated States of Micronesia (often abbreviated as "FSM" or "Micronesia". Do not confuse with the same name for the entire region. ). The Gilbert Islands (along with the Phoenix and Line Islands in Polynesia) make up the Republic of Kiribati. The Mariana Islands are affiliated with the United States. Some of them belong to the US territory of Guam, and the rest belong to the US Federation of the Northern Mariana Islands. The island of Nauru is its own sovereign state. All Marshall Islands belong to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Wake Island's sovereignty is contested: it is claimed by both the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The United States actually owns Wake Island, which is under the direct control of the US Air Force.

Human settlement in Micronesia began thousands of years ago. The people of Micronesia are considered by linguistic, archaeological, and human genetic evidence to be a subset of the Austronesian people who travel the sea, including the people of Polynesia and the people of Melanesia. Based on the current scientific consensus, the Austronesian people originated from the prehistoric maritime movement known as the expansion of the Austronesian language family from Taiwan before Han, around 3000-1500 BC. .. By about 2200 BC, the Austronesians had reached the northernmost tip of the Philippines, especially the Batanes Islands. The Austronesians were the first to invent open-sea navigation techniques, especially catamaran, outrigger boats, rushed-lug boat construction, and crab claw sails, allowing for rapid dispersal to the islands of the Indo-Pacific. From 2000 BC, they assimilated (or assimilated) into the early populations of the islands of the migration path.

The first known contact between Europeans and Micronesia was in 1521, when a Spanish ship landed on the Mariana Islands. Jules Dumont d'Orville was usually said to have coined the term "Micronesia" in 1832, but in reality, Domeny Delienji used the term a year ago.