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Yap State

Constituent state of the Federation of Micronesia

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Through United Nations, Municipality and World War I

What is now current-day Yap State and some parts of Chuuk State were the historical Yapese Empire, which at its peak, controlled 1,300 km of the western Pacific comprising all the inhabited islands and atolls between Yap and Chuuk. The rulers of the chiefdom of Gagil in Yap maintained sovereignty of these islands to the east and extracted resources and tribute, maintaining close economic and political relationships with the different island groups. After losing its influence and becoming incorporated territories of Spain, the German Empire, the Japanese Empire, and the United States through the UN-mandated Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), Yap and the islands and atolls between Yap and Chuuk formed Yap State upon the founding of the FSM.

According to the FSM Statistics Office, the population of Colonia and the municipalities of Yap State was 11,577 in 2020. The state has a total land area of 102 km2 (39 sq mi).

History

The islands are thought to have been populated from the Malay Archipelago. In approximately 950 AD, it was the seat of the Yapese Empire, contemporary to the Tu'i Tonga Empire. The outer islands, now part of the Yap state, were settled from Polynesia.

The island nation formerly used rai stones as currency. Since this stone money had to be made from a rock that could not be extracted on the island, its value derived from the dangers taken on expeditions to obtain it, mainly from Palau.

The Portuguese were the first Westerners to visit the island in 1525 when the navigator Diogo da Rocha arrived in Ulithi and stayed there for four months.

The Yap Island was under Spanish rule from the 16th century until the end of the 19th century. Still, most of the communities on the islands of the present state of Yap had little contact with Europeans and lived in complete independence. In 1885, following a conflict between Spain and Germany known as the Carolines Question, the arbitration of Pope Leo XIII confirmed possession to Spain against commercial advantages for Germany.

On June 30, 1899, after the Spanish–American War, Spain sold the Carolines, the Palau Islands, and the majority of the Marianas to the German Empire.

At the start of World War I, in 1914, the Empire of Japan occupied the area. This occupation was formally recognized within the framework of the Mandate of the Pacific Islands created in 1919 by the League of Nations.

The Caroline Islands came under the control of the United States during World War II, in 1944, which administered them as a Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands under a UN mandate received in 1947. The state was once the Yap District of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. On May 10, 1979, Yap ratified the Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia and became an integral part of this new nation with official independence on November 3, 1986.

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