Micronesia (area)

Geography

In 1831, Jules Dumont d' Urville proposes with the Société geography of Paris to distinguish several areas in Oceania:

the Polynesia, “many islands”;
the Mélanésie, “islands black”;
the Micronesia ;
and the Malaysia (withdrawn later).

This distinction, is disputed by geographers. Benoit Antheaume and Joel Bonnemaison write as follows: “there are undoubtedly no cuts deep, cultural and even ethnic, between the companies mélanésiennes, Polynesian and micronésiennes which, of long time, nourished multiple contacts” (Atlas islands and States of the Pacific Sud, GIP Reclus /Publisud, Montpellier, 1988, ISBN 2-86600-41713-5). In the general public, however, this nomenclature is usually adopted.

Micronesia includes/understands archipelagoes and isolated islands, located rather at the North-East of the Pacific. Approximately two thousand islands recovering 2.700 km ², scattered on more than 7 million square kilometers, of which many tiny atolls, often densément inhabited (more than 400.000 inhabitants, 150 h/km ²). It includes/understands in particular the islands Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Palaos, the Marshall, the Kiribati and Nauru. The high islands (volcanic) border the Fosse of Mariannes, while the low islands (atolls) are especially in the east of the group. Of Tobi (Palaos) to Arorae (Kiribati), it there has 2.726 nautical miles, that is to say approximately the distance between San Francisco and Miami.

Policy

Population and languages

There is 5 000 years (3 000 front J. - C.), of the inhabitants of the littoral of the China of the South, farmers of millet and rice, start to cross the strait to settle with Taiwan. Towards 2 000 before J. - C., of the migrations take place of Taiwan towards the Filipino . Towards 1 500 av. J. - C., another movement carries out Filipino in New Guinea and beyond that, the islands of the Pacifique. The Austronésiens are undoubtedly the first large navigators of the history of humanity.

See also: Settlement of Oceania

The spoken languages in Micronesia (before European colonizations), belong mainly to the branch Malayo-polynésien of the Langues austronésiennes. The sub-group of the Langues micronésiennes which belongs to the Langues océaniennes there is best represented - but with notable exceptions and Polynesian or peripheral isolates like the Chamorro or the languages of the Palaos.

One finds in particular those of the Carolines (spoken with the the Northern Marianna Islands), Gilbertin (Kiribati), Kusaie/Kosrae, Lamotrek (sometimes regarded as a dialect of Woleai), Marshall, Mokil, Mortlock, Ponape/Pohnpei, Puluwat/Polowat, Satawal, Truk/Chuuk, Ulithi, Sonsorol and Woleai); but also some isolates Polynesia NS (Kapingamarangi or Nukuoro or Tobi) even of other groups always austronésiens, but coming from the islands of the Probe (the West Indies) (as with Yap) or more definitely different as with the Palaos or at the Chamorro S from the the Northern Marianna Islands. The case of the language of Nauru is discussed. On certain islands were formed of the creole S, containing English or of Japanese.

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