Marshall Islands

The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an archipelagic country in Oceania. The sovereign state lies west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 coral atolls, five main islands, and 1,220 other very small ones, divided across two island chains: Ratak in the east and Ralik in the west. 98.47% of its territory is lagoon waters, the largest proportion of water to land of any sovereign state. The country shares maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and the Federated States of Micronesia to the west. The capital and largest city is Majuro, home to approximately half of the country's population. The Marshall Islands are one of only four atoll-based nations, along with Kiribati, The Maldives, and Tuvalu. Austronesian settlers reached the Marshall Islands as early as the 2nd millennium BC and introduced Southeast Asian crops, including coconuts, giant swamp taro, and breadfruit, as well as domesticated chickens, which made the islands permanently habitable. The first Europeans to visit the islands were the crew of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Alonso de Salazar who arrived in Taongi in 1526, which they called Isla de San Bartolomé (Saint Bartholomew Island). They were the survivors of a larger expedition which had sailed from Spain in 1525 led by Garcia Jofre de Loaisa. In 1528, another Spanish ship arrived in the Marshall Islands and visited Ujelang and Enewetak, this time led by Alvaro de Saavedra who was sailing back to the Americas from the Spice Islands. Later, Spanish galleons usually sailed a Pacific route farther north and avoided the Marshalls. European maps and charts named the group for British captain John Marshall,...