History of the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands is a republic of 29 atolls and 5 coral islands. The islands are
one of the four main groups that make up Micronesia. The nearest neighbor to the
Marshalls are the Federated States of Micronesia. They're only 26 populated islands in
the Marshalls because a lot of the islands are too small to support many people. There
are two roughly parallel chains of islands that make up the western Ralik group and the
eastern Ratak group. Now that you know what and where the Marshall Islands are I'll
explain the history.
The very early people of the Marshalls had no written language so it is very hard
to predict what went on. The only early history has been handed down from generation
to generation in the form of songs, and we can also get some facts from the folklore and
English: US troops inspecting an enemy bunker, Kwa...
slide from March 2000
Landings on roi-namur island in the Kwajalein Atol...legends. One thing that they do know is that powerful chiefs ruled these large
civilizations able to move such large stones to build temples and cities. They must have
been somewhat advanced because they were able to build huge walls that were probably
there to enclose a city. These walls weighed many tons and were 20 ft. long, and even
some walls they have found to be 40 ft. high. Archaeologists are still puzzled of what
kind of machinery they had to move such large stones.
The real knowledge we know about the Marshall Islands history began in the
early sixteenth century. The sea going Europeans were trying to find sources of the Spice
Islands that were in very large demand in Europe. English, Dutch, Spanish and
Portuguese sea captains were all sailing around on their hunt for riches. One of the first
people we know of to definitely land on...