Trust Territories of the Pacific
18 JULY 1947
TRUST TERRITORIES OF THE PACIFIC
Ferdinand Magellan made the first European contact with South Pacific Micronesia in 1521. Though Magellan didn’t survive this contact, Spain’s subsequent colonization of the Philippines and their trans-Pacific galleon traffic cemented Iberian control of the Marshall Islands, the Carolines, and the Marianas. The Spanish suppressed native cultures in favor of Catholicism in a presence that endured until the end of the 19th century. Their defeat in the 1898 Spanish-American War ceded the Philippines and Guam to the United States and left the rest of Micronesia open to new European domination. Germany stepped in, scooping up South Pacific archipelagos in the early 20th century.
The 1914 outbreak of WWI opened the door for Japan (then on the Allied side) who took over Germany’s Pacific possessions without a fight. After that war the newly formed League of Nations awarded a mandate for the Marshalls, Carolines, and Northern Marianas to Japan. But Japan walked out of the League of Nations in 1935 over disarmament disagreements, freeing her from the League’s non-militarization policy.
Then in WWII, the Allies wrested Truk (Chuuk), Kwajalein, Guam, and Saipan from Nipponese domination. A United Nations ruling this day granted the Micronesian Islands to the United States as Trust Territories. This provision was temporary–intended as a pathway to independence that was simultaneously extended to former colonies in Africa and Indochina. Under Trust dictates, the governing nation could establish military outposts, station armed forces, and “close” any portion of the territory to international attention for “security reasons.” From 1947 until 1951 the Secretary of the Navy exerted, “all powers and jurisdiction” over these Pacific islands. ADM Louis E. Denfeld, then CNO, was appointed as the first High Commissioner, supported by ADM DeWitt C. Ramsey (CINCPAC) and ADM Arthur W. Radford (VCNO). Governance passed to the Department of the Interior in 1951, though SecNav retained Saipan and Tinian, the site of Navy and CIA bases. Then in 1976, the Northern Marianas established a “commonwealth” agreement, granting them status as a bone fide overseas territory equivalent to Puerto Rico, Guam or American Samoa.
Full independence for the others came in the 1980s. And shortly all entered Compacts of Free Association (COFA) with the United States, a unique status still in effect today under which the Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Yap, Pohnpei, Korsea), the Republic of Palau, and the Marshall Islands maintain independent sovereignty, but are provided US military security, disaster relief, US postal zip codes, and FAA and FCC administration.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 22 JUL 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
“Decolonization.” United Nations publication 80-08146, April 1980, pp. 5-24.
Mack, Doug. The Not-Quite-States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2017.
Richard, Dorothy Elizabeth. The United States Naval Administration of the Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands: The Trusteeship Period 1947-1951. Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, 1957.
Site visit. Chuuk (Truk), Federated States of Micronesia, March 1898.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 21: Trusteeship of Strategic Areas. 2 April 1947. AT: http://www.un.org/ga/ search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/21(1947).
ADDITIONAL NOTES: While his expedition was still in the Philippines, Ferdinand Magellan was killed in a native attack in 1521. His crew continued their circumnavigation of the globe, returning to Spain in 1523.