American Micronesia
During World War II the United States wrested the Carolines from Japanese control. The war in the Pacific involved one-third of the earth's surface. Japan had possessed the Northern Marianas, Marshall, and Caroline islands since the Great War.
In May 1943 the United States Joint Chiefs paper No. 304 "Operations in the Pacific and Far East in 1943—1944" was an approved JCS paper by that time. It called for operations in the Marshalls and added the pleasant thought that, six months later, American forces should move on to the Caroline Islands.
Various routes were advocated by planning subordinates. Some favored a southern approach to Truk, main Japanese base in the Caroline Islands, up through Rabaul, New Britain, rather than via the Marshalls. On 13 September 1944, Admiral Halsey, commanding the US Third Fleet during air raids on the Philippines, recommended to Admiral Nimitz, who passed the recommendation on to Admiral King and General MacArthur, that the planned amphibious assaults on Pelehu in the Western Caroline Islands, Yap in the northestërn Car1ine Islands, Ulithi in the northwestern Caroline Islands, and Mindianao in the Southern Philippines be cancelled.
In 1947, Micronesia became the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), administered by the United Nations. Washington, which viewed the Micronesian region in terms of strategic denial and forward deployment, gave little thought to its political evolution until the early 1960s. It formed a territory-wide legislature, the congress of Micronesia, in 1965, and approached the termination of the trusteeship with the establishment of permanent linkages between the United States and Micronesia as its objective.
The United States had administered the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) since July, 1947. The area involved now includes four separate political jurisdictions: the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI); the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM); the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI); and the Republic of Palau (RP).
During negotiations on the TTPI's future, the United States offered the status of United States territory to each jurisdiction. Elected representatives of FSM, RMI, and RP rejected that status in favor of a different relationship involving greater local autonomy but retaining strong ties with the United States. While this concept of "free association" has no precise definition in international law, it is recognized in resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly as an appropriate political alternative to independence or metropolitan (territorial) status for political entities emerging from a colonial or trusteeship status.
The Compact of Free Association (COFA) Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-239) approved a joint resolution between the United States, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) which terminated U.S. trusteeship over the former Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI). The resolution also established the FSM and the RMI as independent nations, and established a special relationship between the United States and these nations. With the dissolution of the Trust Territory of the Pacific (TTPI), a United Nations mandate managed by the United States, and comprised of those islands that had been Japanese colonies until the end of WW II, Micronesia emerged as a separate political entity.
The Micronesians sought a status similar to that of the Cook Islands: self governing in free association with the United States, with the unilateral right to terminate the relationship in favour of full independence. One component, the Northern Marianas, accepted a US counter proposal of commonwealth status (modelled on its relationship with Puerto Rico), but the others rejected this solution. Two components, Palau and the Marshall Islands (both of strategic importance to the US), preferred to form their own governments and negotiate independently with the United States.
The three former TTPI districts of Yap, Chuuk (formerly Truk) and Pohnpei united to form the new Federated States of Micronesia. A portion of the Pohnpei district was separated to make the state of Kosrae. Consequently the FSM has four states, from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. Each state supports population centers on high volcanic islands.
On May 10, 1979, four of the Trust Territory districts ratified a new constitution to become the Federated States of Micronesia. The neighboring trust districts of Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands chose not to participate. The FSM signed a Compact of Free Association with the United States in 1986. An Amended Compact entered into force in June 2004.
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