Caroline Islands
The Caroline Islands (in English Caroline Islands) are an archipelago of Micronesia, west of the Pacific Ocean. They have an area of 1,194 km² and 126,000 inhabitants. The archipelago is made up of almost a thousand atolls and islands, some of volcanic origin, located north of the equator.
The main islands are Ponape, the largest and highest, Truk, Kosrae, Yap and Palau. The first four, the easternmost, have formed the Federated States of Micronesia, while Palau, the westernmost, has become a republic.
The islands enjoy an equatorial climate and there are coconut, cassava and sugar cane farms. There are also deposits of bauxite and phosphates. The demonym is carolino.
History
The first Europeans to arrive in the Caroline Islands were the Spanish explorers Toribio Alonso de Salazar and Diego de Saavedra, who sighted the island of San Bartolomé or Taongui on August 22, 1526. On January 1, 1528, the discoverer Álvaro de Saavedra took possession in the name of the king of Spain of the islands of Uluti. The archipelago received new Spanish visits in 1542 (Islas Matelotes), 1543, 1545; in 1565 Legazpi stopped there.
They were known as the Sister Islands, Painted Men, and The Gardens, though news of them was lost until the Francisco de Lezcano arrived in Yap in 1686 and called them the Carolinas, in honor of King Carlos II of Spain, extending the name to the Palau Islands and to those that were renamed the Gilbert Islands and the Marshall Islands by the British explorers of the same name as the They visited between 1788, the first, and 1799, the second.
The colonization of the Caroline Islands had, as in most Spanish companies, a markedly religious character. Granted the authorization to send missionaries by royal decree of October 19, 1707, several expeditions were made to the Caroline Islands. One of them was the one carried out by Father Cantova, who was assassinated. After this event and until 1787, Spain's relations with the Caroline Islands ceased, relations that were later resumed, but this time with a purely commercial nature.
In 1852, the Spanish colonel Coello indicated to his government the advantages that the effective occupation of the Caroline Islands would provide to the Philippine trade with Australia, New Guinea and America, but Spain ignored his suggestions until 1885, the year in which the Spanish representative Butrón signed an act with the kings of Koror and Artingal by which the sovereignty of the king of Spain over the Carolinas was recognized. Once the territory was secured, Spain tried to establish customs duties in the region in 1875, but Germany and the United Kingdom protested, since the previous abandonment of the islands by Spain allowed the arrival of different missions from these two countries. The conflict that arose as a result of these events was submitted to the arbitration of Pope Leo XIII, who recognized the priority of Spain's rights over the islands up to degree 164 east longitude, assigning Germany the Marshall Islands and the power to retain a station naval in one of the Caroline Islands, a right that Germany never used.
After the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Caroline and Mariana Islands were sold to Germany for 25 million pesetas in 1899, with Spain reserving the right to establish a coal deposit in the area. The gunboat Panther was sent by Germany to take possession of these islands. As historical testimony of the German occupation of the Caroline Islands, a circular punch was used in 1899 that was stamped on 5-mark coins, Philippine pesos of King Alfonso XIII and thalers of María Teresa I of Austria. Said countermark contained a legend that made reference to King William II of Germany: "W.II.KAISER.KRLNS" and dated 1899.
Japan occupied the islands in 1914 and in 1920 received a League of Nations mandate to administer them. The archipelago was conquered by US troops during World War II. It came under United Nations control at the end of the war and was administered by the US from 1947 to 1990, when the Federated States of Micronesia declared itself independent. The Republic of Palau decided not to join the Micronesian federation and to become independent, which it did in 1994.
Political-administrative organization
The Caroline Islands, after successive political and historical changes, are currently basically made up of two independent countries:
| Flag | Shield | Country | Area | Population | Administrative division | Form of government | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | Federated States of Micronesia | 702 km2 | 107 862 (2007) | Organized in 4 states: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae | Independent Federation since 1990 |  |
 |  | Republic of Palau | 458 km2 | 20 842 (2007) | Organized in 16 states | Independent Republic since 1994 |  |