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It's thought that the first
inhabitants of Palau came from eastern Indonesia. Carbon dating of
ancient habitation sites shows that the Rock Islands were settled by at
least 1000 BC. These early Palauans developed fairly complex
matrilineal and matriarchal social systems, wherein money and property
were inherited by women though owned by the clan.
The first European to sight Palau was probably Ruy Lopez de Villalobos
of Spain in 1543. Spain claimed the islands in 1686 but did nothing to
develop or colonize them. It wasn't until 1783, when English captain
Henry Wilson shipwrecked on a reef off Palau's Ulong Island, that any
significant contact between Palauans and Westerners began. Wilson was
aided by Koror's chief, Ibedul, who helped rebuild the ship and then
sent his son, Prince Lebuu, back with the sailors to be educated in
England. Although Lebuu died of smallpox shortly after arriving in
London, his presence there touched many Britons and piqued their
interest in Palau. The country soon became Palau's main trading partner
and remained so for over 100 years, until the Spanish returned and
expelled them in 1885.
Spanish missionaries introduced Christianity and a written alphabet to
Palau before Spain sold the country to Germany in the wake of the
Spanish-American War. Germany took control in 1899 and immediate set
about curtailing the devastating effects of Western diseases on the
local populace. They then forced the Palauans into servitude while
setting up coconut plantations and other business ventures.
Japan occupied Palau from 1914 until the end of WWII. It was during
this time that Palauan culture went through its greatest
transformation: free public schools were opened, instructing islanders
in a subservient dialect of the Japanese language, and village chiefs
lost power to Japanese colonial bureaucrats. Koror was developed into a
bustling modern city, with paved roads, electricity and piped-in water;
thousands of Japanese, Korean and Okinawan laborers were imported; and
the traditional inheritance patterns were shattered as Palauans lost
their land, either through sale of confiscation.
In the late 1930s, Japan closed Palau to the outside world and began
concentrating its efforts to develop military fortifications throughout
the islands. During the final stages of WWII, Japanese installations
across Palau became targets for Allied attacks. The fiercest fighting
took place on Peleliu and Angaur; the more heavily populated Koror and
Babeldaob (where the Japanese had relocated most Palauans) were never
invaded.
When the US began to administer Palau after the war, it hoped to spin
it off with the rest of Micronesia into a single political entity.
Palauans, however, held out, voting in 1978 against becoming a part of
the Federated States of Micronesia in favor of retaining a separate
identity. In 1980 Palau adopted its own constitution, and the first
president, Haruo Remeliik, took office in 1981. Koror was named the
provisional capital, though the constitution requires that it
eventually be moved to Melekeok State in Babeldaob.
The transition to self governance, however, has not been easy: in 1985,
Remeliik was assassinated (the crime remains unsolved), and his
successor, Lazarus Salii, was found shot to death in an apparent
suicide after being placed under investigation for accepting political
payoffs. Palau's next president, Ngiratkel Etpison, a successful
businessman and part-owner of the Palau Pacific Resort, was the first
to serve out his term in full.
On 1 October 1994, Palau officially became an independent nation,
ending 47 years as a Trust Territory. That same year it was admitted to
the United Nations. The US retains some rights to a third of Palauan
territory, thanks to its Compact of Free Association, which netted
Palau a hefty US$450 million financial package for the first 15 years
of the 50-year compact.
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