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 Early History of the Republic of the  Marshall Islands  1494-1914

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A Brief Summarized History

[From Wikipedia]*

 

Evidence suggests that around 3,000 years ago successive waves of human migrants from Southeast Asia spread across the Western Pacific populating its many small islands. The Marshall Islands were settled by Micronesians in the 2nd millennium BC. Little is known of the islands' early history. Early settlers traveled between the islands by canoe using traditional stick charts.[1]

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The Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar landed there in 1529. They were named by Krusenstern, after English explorer John Marshall, who visited them together with Thomas Gilbert in 1788, en route from Botany Bay to Canton (two ships of the First Fleet). The Marshall Islands were claimed by Spain in 1874.

Go here:     https://www.revolvy.com/page/Alonso-de-Salazar

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Following papal mediation and German compensation of $4.5 million, Spain recognized Germany's claim in 1885, which established a protectorate and set up trading stations on the islands of Jaluit and Ebon to carry out the flourishing copra (dried coconut meat) trade. Marshallese Iroij (high chiefs) continued to rule under indirect colonial German administration.

1494 - All of Micronesia is ceded to Spain


1529 - Spaniard Alonso de Salazar discovers Taongi Atoll in the northern Marshalls.


1788 - British Naval Captain William Marshall sails through the area while transporting convicts and names it.


1857 - Reverend Hiram Bingham, Jr. of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions creates a missionary outpost on Ebon.

 

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1860s - Adolph Capelle builds the first trading company in the Marshalls. Other German trading firms come

 

1878 - Germans establish a calling station


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​​​1886 - Germany establishes a protectorate over the Marshalls


Note:  Please go and check out the famous "Kramer Collection" of archival photographs:  http://www.mistories.org/kramer-3.php

 

​1898 - Germany receives ownership of Ujelang and Enewetok atolls as a result of the Spanish American war


1914 - The Marshalls are captured from Germany by the Japanese

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Descending from a long line of Congregationalist missionaries, Hiram Bingham Jr. [L] sailed the ship
"Morning Star" [R] throughout the Pacific & Micronesia between 1857-68 spreading the Christian Gospel.  Go here:  https://www.trussel.com/kir/mornstar.htm       And here:   https://www.trussel.com/kir/starseq.htm     And go here for the complete book "Morning Star":  https://www.loc.gov/resource/dcmsiabooks.storyofmorningst00bing_1/?st=gallery!!

THIS MAN ON THIS SHIP BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY TO
                 THE  MARSHALL ISLANDS IN 1857!!

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The approximately 100,000 people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands are the world's proverbial "canary in the coal mine."  Having suffered - and continuing to experience - the legacy of H-bomb testing and radioactive fallout, the Marshallese remind us of humankind's worst possible scenario with horrific thermonuclear weapons, a nuclear war.

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Likewise, as we pass 420 parts per million of carbon dioxide and witness the Earth burning and the Polar ice caps melting, sea level rise poses an existential threat to all island and coastal populations, and in particular the low-lying coral atoll dwellers in the Pacific nation states of the RMI, Kibibati [formerly the Gilbert Islands], Tuvalu [formerly the Ellice Islands], and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.

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In this sense then, the Marshallese offer us a "twofer" lesson about the threat of nuclear weapons, and the threat of destroying our precious Mother Earth by the burning of fossil fuels even Exxon knew was destroying the planet back in the 1970s!

 

This website is designed to give voice to the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands [RMI] who have firsthand knowledge - in their bodies and DNA, in their memories and permanently in their atolls - of thermonuclear weapons and their destruction, having been at the receiving end of the United States' "foreign policy."


AtomicAtolls.org's primary mission is to provide a repository of the unfiltered history of the relationship between the U.S. and RMI through an archive of audio interviews [in both Marshallese and English*] on SoundCloud (previously unavailable to the public) and photographs of downwind Marshall Islanders who were caught in the radioactive fallout from the 67 atomic & hydrogen thermonuclear bombs detonated at Bikini and Enewetak Atolls between 1946-58.

 

In addition to these rare and powerful interviews conducted between 1981 and 2002 [by Glenn Alcalay & Kai Erikson], numerous unclassified U.S. government documents, U.N. testimonies, NGO reports, and other educational materials regarding nuclear testing issues in the Marshall Islands will also be made available to the public.  Lastly, a large archive [150] of videos and documentary films about the people of the Marshall Islands in the Nuclear Age, from the Manhattan Project to Weapons in Space are available on the Nuke Videos page on the masthead above.

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Our website is dedicated to aolep dri-Majol, people of the Marshall Islands - especially the youth - and all of the glorious people who reside on our dear Mother Earth pushing to abolish nuclear weapons, and transition to green, renewable energy ASAP

 

If there is a theme or a meme that truly captures the character and the spirit of this website, it is this: 

 

     America nuked the Gentle People.

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          Glenn Alcalay

Peace Corps Volunteer, lovely Utrok Atoll 1975-1977

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       Jeramman wot!

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* Please subscribe to the legendary Marshall Islands Journal

  Go here to subscribe:    https://marshallislandsjournal.com/

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** And please visit our other website:   MarComU.org

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Glenn Alcalay & Andrew Fuchs - for our friends

www.AtomicAtolls.org

© 2015-2024

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