48 Fun Facts About Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia is made up of how many states?

Four states, each with its own elected governor and legislature, make up the federation under the constitution that took effect in 1979.

What is the capital of the Federated States of Micronesia?

Palikir, a purpose-built capital on the island of Pohnpei, replaced the old colonial town of Kolonia as the seat of the national government.

The FSM comprises roughly how many islands?

About 607 islands make up the FSM, yet together they total only some 702 square kilometres of land.

The FSM's territory forms most of which larger archipelago?

The Carolines: the FSM occupies the central and eastern Caroline Islands, a scattered chain in the western Pacific north of New Guinea.

Roughly how much ocean lies within the FSM's exclusive economic zone?

About 3 million km²: the FSM's exclusive economic zone spans nearly 3 million square kilometres of the western Pacific, more than 4,000 times its land area.

The FSM became independent under a Compact of Free Association in which year?

1986: the Compact of Free Association took effect on 3 November 1986; the UN Security Council formally ended the trusteeship in December 1990.

From 1947 the islands of the FSM were administered under which UN arrangement?

Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands: this UN trusteeship, created in 1947 under American administration, also produced the Marshall Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Which country is wholly responsible for the FSM's defence?

The United States: the Compact of Free Association gives Washington full authority over FSM defence, and FSM citizens may enlist in the US armed forces.

How many members sit in the FSM's unicameral Congress?

14 senators sit in the single-chamber Congress: each state elects one at-large senator to a longer term, and the rest are chosen from population-based districts for two years.

Who elects the president of the FSM?

Congress, from among the at-large senators: the single-chamber Congress chooses both the president and vice-president from the senators elected state-wide; the FSM has no formal political parties.

What do the white stars on the FSM flag represent?

The states of the federation: each white star stands for one member state, set on a light-blue field that represents the Pacific Ocean.

What is the official language of the FSM?

English is the official language, used in government and schools, but most islanders speak one of the indigenous Austronesian languages at home.

Which state's people make up almost half the FSM population?

Chuuk: Chuukese made up 48.8 percent of the population at the 2010 census, against 24.2 percent for Pohnpeians.

Nan Madol, the ruined city on Pohnpei, is often nicknamed what?

The Venice of the Pacific: Nan Madol is a series of artificial islets linked by tidal canals in a lagoon off Pohnpei's south-east coast.

Nan Madol was the seat of which dynasty, which united Pohnpei until about 1628?

Saudeleur: the dynasty ruled Pohnpei from its seat at Nan Madol for roughly five centuries until its overthrow around 1628.

Nan Madol is made up of roughly how many artificial islets?

About 100: Nan Madol comprises roughly a hundred artificial islets of stacked stone and coral rubble, separated by tidal canals.

Nan Madol's megalithic walls are built from which volcanic rock?

Basalt: the walls are stacked columnar basalt logs, with megalithic construction beginning around AD 1180 using stone quarried elsewhere on Pohnpei.

The island of Yap is famous for what unusual form of money?

Giant stone discs called rai, the largest more than three metres across, were used as money on Yap and remain scattered around the island.

Which is the westernmost of the FSM's states?

Yap: the westernmost state, whose main islands lie closer to Guam than to the national capital on Pohnpei.

Yap's stone money is made of which mineral?

Calcite: the discs are carved from crystalline limestone made of calcite; earlier reports describing them as aragonite were mistaken.

What happened to the value of a rai stone that sank to the sea floor while being transported?

It was still traded as if it were on land: islanders agreed the stone lay on the sea floor, so its ownership kept changing hands like any other rai.

A rai stone's value depended on its size, craftsmanship and what else?

Its history: a stone brought by a famous navigator, or one whose transport cost lives, was worth more than a larger but uneventful one.

Chuuk Lagoon was known by what name until 1990?

Truk was a mispronunciation of Ruk.

What was Truk Lagoon's role in World War II?

Japan's main naval base in the South Pacific theatre: the Combined Fleet anchored in the lagoon, whose supposed fortifications earned it the nickname 'the Gibraltar of the Pacific'.

What was the name of the February 1944 US attack that sank dozens of Japanese ships in Truk Lagoon?

Operation Hailstone: on 17–18 February 1944 US carrier aircraft sank more than 40 ships, mostly merchantmen and auxiliaries, and destroyed some 250 aircraft in the lagoon.

Whose 1971 television documentary turned Truk Lagoon into a world-famous wreck-diving destination?

Jacques Cousteau: his 1971 television film 'Lagoon of Lost Ships' showed the sunken warships and transports, now called the Ghost Fleet, to the diving world.

Which colonial power sold the archipelago to Germany in 1899?

Spain had just lost the Spanish-American War.

Who was asked in 1885 to rule on whether Spain or Germany had authority over the islands?

Pope Leo XIII: his arbitration upheld Spanish sovereignty over the islands while guaranteeing Germany freedom of trade and a naval coaling station.

Which country ran the islands as a League of Nations mandate between the world wars?

Japan had captured them from Germany during World War I.

Roughly what share of the FSM population is Christian?

97%: almost every islander is Christian, belonging to either the Roman Catholic church or Protestant, chiefly Congregational, churches that grew from 19th-century missions.

The atoll of Pingelap is known for the unusual prevalence of which condition?

Total colour blindness, or achromatopsia, affects around five percent of Pingelap's people — known locally as maskun — after a typhoon around 1775 left only about twenty survivors.

Mount Nahnalaud on Pohnpei is remarkable for what?

Being one of the rainiest places on Earth: though under 800 m high, Nahnalaud's cloud-forest summit averages more than seven metres of rain a year.

Which sport is especially popular across the FSM?

Baseball, introduced in the colonial era and later reinforced by American influence, is played across all the states and features at the Micronesian Games.

The Yapese are especially noted for their skill in what?

Dancing: Yap's famous bamboo stick dance is performed by men, women and children together, and other dances are staged separately by men and by women.

The FSM's main source of government revenue is what?

Financial assistance from the US: Compact of Free Association grants, first paid in the 1980s and renewed for a further twenty years in 2023–24, fund much of the government budget.

In 2022 the FSM severed diplomatic relations with which country?

Russia: on 25 February 2022, the day after the invasion of Ukraine began, the FSM announced it was breaking off diplomatic relations with Moscow.

The wider region of Micronesia consists of roughly how many small islands?

2,000: roughly two thousand islands, most of them small coral atolls, make up the region, scattered across the north-western Pacific largely north of the equator.

Which of these is one of the four main archipelagos of the Micronesia region?

The Gilbert Islands: the Gilberts, now the core of Kiribati, are the region's south-eastern chain; the other three main archipelagos lie further north and west.

Which French explorer is usually credited with coining the term 'Micronesia' in 1832?

Jules Dumont d'Urville: his 1832 scheme dividing the Pacific into Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia popularised the name, though Louis Domeny de Rienzi had used 'Micronesia' a year earlier.

Political control of the Micronesia region is divided among how many sovereign nations?

Six: five independent island republics share the region with the US, whose territories of Guam, the Northern Marianas and Wake Island are also Micronesian.

The FSM's capital was declared in which year, replacing nearby Kolonia?

1989: the new purpose-built capital complex a few kilometres south-west of Kolonia took over that year, though Kolonia remains Pohnpei's main town.

Which FSM state is the only one without outlying atolls?

Each state is centred on one or more volcanic islands; Kosrae, the easternmost, is essentially a single high island.

Which regional body did the FSM announce it would quit in 2021 before the Suva Agreement kept it in?

Pacific Islands Forum: the FSM and its Micronesian neighbours gave notice in February 2021 after losing the vote on the secretary-general post; the June 2022 Suva Agreement brought them back.

In which year was the FSM admitted to the United Nations?

1991: the FSM joined the United Nations on 17 September 1991, on the same day as the Marshall Islands, after Security Council Resolution 703 recommended its admission.

Roughly what share of the FSM population follows the Catholic Church?

55%: the 2010 census counted about 55 percent of islanders as Roman Catholic and 41 percent as Protestant, the latter mostly Congregationalist.

In which year was Nan Madol inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List?

2016: Nan Madol became the FSM's first World Heritage Site in 2016 and was placed at once on the List of World Heritage in Danger because silting and vegetation threaten its stonework.

In Pohnpeian legend, who built Nan Madol?

Twin sorcerers: the brothers Olisihpa and Olosohpa are said to have raised the massive stones with magic, helped by a flying dragon, before founding the ruling dynasty.

Who overthrew the Saudeleur dynasty at Nan Madol around 1628?

Isokelekel: the semi-legendary invader from the east defeated the last ruler of Nan Madol and founded the Nahnmwarki chieftainship that ruled Pohnpei afterwards.