Marshall Islands

History

The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country in Oceania. The sovereign state lies west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 coral atolls and five main islands as well as 1,220 other very small ones, divided across two island chains: Ratak in the east and Ralik in the west. 98.62% of its territory is water, the largest proportion of water to land of any sovereign state. The country shares maritime boundaries with Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to the southeast, Nauru to the south, and the Federated States of Micronesia to the west. The capital and largest city is Majuro, home to approximately half of the country's population. The Marshall Islands are one of only four atoll-based nations in the entire world, along with Kiribati, The Maldives, and Tuvalu. Austronesian settlers reached the Marshall Islands as early as the 2nd millennium BC and introduced Southeast Asian crops, including coconuts, giant swamp taro, and breadfruit, as well as domesticated chickens, which made the islands permanently habitable. The first Europeans to... Summary adapted from the English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). The live article includes citations, maps, and updates.