Yesterday we met Palau, an amazing archipelago in Micronesia. We started in on Palauan history and got sidetracked by Prince Lee Boo. Let’s pick up in 1898 when the Spanish colonizers of Palau lost the Spanish-American War and sold Palau, as part of the larger Caroline Islands, to Germany. Germans “developed” Palau by mining and harvesting its natural resources like bauxite and phosphate. The Japanese made a secret treaty with the British that as part of their declaration of war on Germany they would be given control of Micronesia. In 1914 the Japanese colonized Palau aggressively, and in 1919 the Treaty of Versailles sealed the deal. The Japanese sent many immigrants to populate the islands–at one point the immigrants even outnumbered the indigenous people–and installed Japanese-friendly Palauans into the local leadership. They also confiscated and redistributed lands and supported the development of a patrilineal system of descent. After the Japanese lost World War II Palau became part of U.S.-administered territory and, after a long series of votes and much unrest it officially signed a “Compact of Free Association” with the United States. Got it? Maybe not. But even if you don’t you can get a kick out of Palauan-Hawaiian musician Sister Lubei performing live.
We are revising the AllAroundThisWorld.com site — the information you’re seeking may still be here, but a lot of links are broken and details may be out of date. We are currently using a new (better!) site — ExploreEverywhere.com — to tell you all about our class offerings, our “pen pal” program and how to become one of our teachers, and will eventually be moving all the goodies from here over to there. So, GO TO THE NEW SITE!
