MICRONESIA. To the islands shortly north of the equator in the Pacific has been applied the designation "Micronesia" (Greek, niikros, small; aims, island). The designation aptly describes the physical appearance of the islands of this subdivision of Oceanica, for they are generally small and generally low, and the section contains a larger proportion of islands of the atoll type than any other subdivi sion of the globe. Listing the several archipel agoes from the east toward the west we find the Marshall group, with its two chains, the Ratak and Ralik; the Caroline group; the Palau, and the Marianas or Ladrones. In the order of their discovery all of these islands, with the exception of the Marshall group, came under the sovereignty of Spain in the 15th century, and with a single exception remained Spanish until the year after the Spanish War, in which they passed to the German Empire, by purchase, for 24,000,000 pesetas; they remained German until their capture by the naval forces of Japan in October 1914. The single exception to the German purchase from Spain is the island of Guam, which was captured by the United States in the Spanish War in 1898, and now re mains an important base of American naval strategy in the Pacific. This is the southern most island of the Ladrones, possesses a good harbor and is 47 miles distant from the island of Rota, its nearest neighbor. Despite the in frequency of rain all of these islands may be regarded as fertile and abundantly productive. The staple product of such agriculture as is practised by the inhabitants is the cocoanut, whose dried meat, known commercially as copra, finds extensive use in the production of oil and feed-cake. In climate, conditions are found such as might be expected in low alti tudes in immediate proximity to the equator, but the excessive temperature is very pleasantly moderated by the prevalence of ocean breezes.
Lying in the region between the two trade winds precipitation is generally below the nor mal, and the supply of water is markedly de ficient, in some islands the only potable water being that which is obtained by filtration through the beach sand into temporary wells which are dug above high water mark. The islands in general lie outside the hurricane belt, yet at rare intervals they have been visited 13 y destructive gales of this type. The ethnolog ical position of the islanders is as yet imper fectly known; physically and in language they differ from the other inhabitants of the Pacific, and in some particulars they seem to suggest a certain degree of derivation from the races of the southeastern corner of Asia, between Tibet and Cambodia. Within a historic period, the native race of Guam, the Chamoro, have been destroyed in a futile insurrection against the introduction of foreign culture.
In 1850 the greater part of Micronesia came tinder the influence of American missionaries, who in that year established a station on the island of Kusaie, in 1856 extended their work to the Marshall Islands, and later spread their efforts over all of the eastern Caroline Islands; in this latter field they came into conflict with the Spanish government, and were forced to withdraw. Micronesia, since the discovery period, has been but scantily subjected to sci entific investigation, except upon the linguistic side. Consult Christian, F. W., 'The Caroline Islands' (London 1899); Furness, 'The Island of Stone Money) (Philadelphia 1910) ; Father Salesius, Karolinen-Insel Jap' (Stuttgart 1904); Bartolis, 'Las Carolinas' (Barcelona 1885); Cabeza Pereira, 'Estudios sobre las Carolinas) (Manila 1895).