This article lists the colonial governors of the Marshall Islands , from the establishment of the German colonial presence during the 1885 Carolines Question [1] [2] [3] (as part of German New Guinea), through the American capture of the islands during World War II, until the official establishment of the autonomous Government of the Marshall Islands in 1979 (within the American-administered TTPI).
(Dates in italics indicate de facto continuation of office)
| Tenure | Portrait | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kommissar (1885–1886) | |||
| 1885 to 1886 |  | Gustav von Oertzen | |
| Kaiserlicher Kommissare (Imperial commissioners, 1886–1894) | |||
| 1886 to 5 October 1887 |  | Wilhelm Knappe | |
| 5 October 1887 to 29 March 1889 | | Franz Leopold Sonnenschein | Acting to 14 April 1888 |
| 29 March 1889 to 14 April 1890 |  | Eugen Brandeis | First time, acting |
| 14 April 1890 to February 1892 | | Max Biermann | |
| February 1892 to 1893 | | Eugen Brandeis | Second time, acting |
| 1893 to 1894 | | Ernst Schmidt-Dargitz | |
| Landeshauptleute (State captains, 1894–1914) | |||
| 11 May 1894 to March 1898 | | Georg Irmer | |
| 24 March 1898 to 18 January 1906 | | Eugen Brandeis | Acting to 22 February 1900 |
| 18 March 1902 to 1903 | | Waldemar von Bunsen | Acting for Brandeis |
| 1903 | | Konrad Geppert | Acting for Brandeis |
| 18 January 1906 to May 1906 | | Ludwig Kaiser | Acting |
| 1 April 1906 to 3 October 1914 |  | the Governors of German New Guinea | |
| Bezirksamtleute (District magistrates, 1906–1911) | |||
| 1906 to 30 April 1907 | | Victor Berg | |
| 1907 | | Joseph Siegwanz | Acting |
| 1908 to November 1909 | | Wilhelm Stuckhardt | |
| November 1909 to 1910 | | Erich Berghausen | Interim |
| 1910 to 1911 | | Georg Merz | |
| Stationsleiter (Station chief, 1911–1914) | |||
| 1911 to 3 October 1914 | | Georg Merz | Deported by the Japanese on 31 May 1915 |
| Commanders of IJN South Seas Squadrons (1914) | |||
| 3 October 1914 to 28 December 1914 |  | Yamaya Tanin | In occupation of central and eastern Caroline Islands (from 3 October 1914) and Marshall Islands |
| 7 October 1914 to 28 December 1914 |  | Matsumura Tatsuo | In occupation of Palau island (from 8 October 1914), western Caroline Islands and northern Mariana Islands (from 14 October 1914) |
| Governors (1914–1944) | |||
| 28 December 1914 to 2 February 1944 |  | the Governors of the South Seas Mandate | |
| Commanders of the IJN 6th Fleet Forces Service (1941–1944) (on Kwajalein Atoll ) | |||
| 15 January 1941 to 1 February 1942 | Sukeyoshi Yatsushirō | ||
| 5 February 1942 to 29 November 1943 |  | Kōsō Abe | |
| 29 November 1943 to 25 January 1944 |  | Monzo Akiyama | Killed in the Battle of Kwajalein |
| USN Military Governors (1944–1947) | |||
| February 1944 to 18 July 1947 | | the Commanders Naval Forces Marianas | |
| Marshall Islands District Administrators (Distad, 1947–1979) | |||
| September 1947 to September 1948 | | Chester E. Herrick | |
| December 1948 to December 1949 | | Edward F. Ferguson | |
| March 1950 to September 1950 | | Roland W. Kenney | |
| December 1950 to June 1951 | | Frank W. Avila | |
| 1951 to 1954 | | Donald W. Gilfillan | |
| 1954 to 1960 | | Maynard Neas | |
| 1960 to 1961 | | William E. Finale | |
| 27 May 1961 to 1965 |  | Peter Tali Coleman | |
| 15 October 1965 to 1969 | | Dwight Heine | The first Micronesian to hold the office [4] |
| 1969 to 1970 | | Robert D. Law | |
| 1970 to 1979 | | Oscar DeBrum | |
On 1 May 1979, Marshall Islands achieved autonomy within the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI). For a list of heads of state after autonomy, see President of the Marshall Islands.
The Federated States of Micronesia, or simply Micronesia, is an island country in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania. The federation consists of four states—from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae—that are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km (1,700 mi) just north of the equator. They lie northeast of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, south of Guam and the Marianas, west of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, east of Palau and the Philippines, about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) north of eastern Australia, 3,400 km (2,100 mi) southeast of Japan, and some 4,000 km (2,485 mi) southwest of the main islands of the Hawaiian Islands.
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands, is an island country west of the International Date Line and north of the equator in the Micronesia region in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The territory consists of 29 coral atolls and five islands, divided across two island chains: Ratak in the east and Ralik in the west. 97.87% 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.
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples.
The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) was a United Nations trust territory in Micronesia administered by the United States from 1947 to 1994. The Imperial Japanese South Seas Mandate had been seized by the US during the Pacific War, as Japan had administered the territory since the League of Nations gave Japan mandate over the area from Imperial Germany after World War I. However, in the 1930s, Japan left the League of Nations, and then invaded additional lands. During World War II, military control of the islands was disputed, but by the end of the war the islands had come under control of the Allies. The Trust Territory of the Pacific was created to administer the islands as part of the United States, while still under the auspices of the United Nations. Most of the island groups in the territory became independent states, with some degree of ties kept with the United States: the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau are today independent states in a Compact of Free Association with the US, while the Northern Mariana Islands remain under US jurisdiction, as an unincorporated territory and commonwealth.
Austronesian settlers arrived in the Marshall Islands in the 2nd millennium BC, but there are no historical or oral records of that period. Over time, the Marshallese people learned to navigate over long ocean distances by walap canoe using traditional stick charts.
Majuro is the capital and largest city of the Marshall Islands. It is also a large coral atoll of 64 islands in the Pacific Ocean. It forms a legislative district of the Ratak (Sunrise) Chain of the Marshall Islands. The atoll has a land area of 9.7 square kilometers (3.7 sq mi) and encloses a lagoon of 295 square kilometers (114 sq mi). As with other atolls in the Marshall Islands, Majuro consists of narrow land masses. It has a tropical trade wind climate, with an average temperature of 27 °C (81 °F).
The Caroline Islands are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the central and eastern parts of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end. Historically, this area was also called Nuevas Filipinas or New Philippines, because they were part of the Spanish East Indies and were governed from Manila in the Philippines.
Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents often use the shortened name, Kwaj. The total land area of the atoll amounts to just over 6 square miles (16 km2). It lies in the Ralik Chain, 2,100 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.
Amata Kabua was the first President of the Marshall Islands from 1979 until his death in 1996.
Ebon Atoll is a coral atoll of 22 islands in the Pacific Ocean, forming a legislative district of the Ralik Chain of the Marshall Islands. Its land area is 5.75 square kilometers (2.22 sq mi), and it encloses a deep lagoon with an area of 104 square kilometers (40 sq mi). A winding passage, the Ebon Channel, leads to the lagoon from the southwest edge of the atoll. Ebon Atoll is approximately 155 kilometers (96 mi) south of Jaluit, and it is the southernmost land mass of the Marshall Islands, on the southern extremity of the Ralik Chain. In documents and accounts from the 1800s, it was also known as Boston, Covell's Group, Fourteen Islands, and Linnez.
Bikar Atoll is an uninhabited atoll in the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. It is one of the smallest atolls in the Marshalls. Due to its relative isolation from the main islands in the group, Bikar's flora and fauna has been able to exist in a relatively pristine condition.
Chuuk State is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The other states are Kosrae State, Pohnpei State, and Yap State. It consists of several island groups: Namoneas, Faichuuk, the Hall Islands, Namonuito Atoll, Pattiw, and the Mortlock Islands. Chuuk is by far the FSM's most populous state, with 50,000 inhabitants on 120 square kilometers. Chuuk Lagoon is where most people live. Weno island, in the lagoon, is Chuuk's state capital and the country's biggest city. It may hold a referendum on independence in the near future, although this referendum has been repeatedly postponed.
Pacific Islander Americans are Americans who are of Pacific Islander ancestry. For its purposes, the United States census also counts Aboriginal Australians as part of this group.
Toke Atoll or Taka Atoll is a small, uninhabited coral atoll in the Ratak Chain of the Marshall Islands. It is one of the smaller atolls in the Marshalls and located at 11°17′N169°37′E. It is visited regularly by the residents of nearby Utirik Atoll.
The high commissioner of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was an official who administered the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), a United Nations trusteeship in the Pacific Ocean under the administration of the United States, between 1947 and 1994. The territory consisted of islands captured by America during World War II, prior to which they had been part of the Empire of Japan as the South Seas Mandate, within the Japanese colonial empire. After World War II, United Nations Security Council Resolution 21 placed the territory under the United States trusteeship as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The islands are now part of Palau, Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Marshall Islands.
Japanese settlement in the Marshall Islands was spurred on by Japanese trade in the Pacific region. The first Japanese explorers arrived in the Marshall Islands in the late 19th century, although permanent settlements were not established until the 1920s. As compared to other Micronesian islands in the South Seas Mandate, there were fewer Japanese who settled in the islands. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Japanese populace were repatriated to Japan, although people of mixed Japanese–Marshallese heritage remained behind. They form a sizeable minority in the Marshall Islands' populace, and are well represented in the corporate, public and political sectors in the country.
The nationality law of the Federated States of Micronesia determines who is or may become a citizen or national of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). Article III of the Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia provides the basis for nationality law, while specific provisions are elaborated in 7 FSMC § 201 et seq.
William Vincent "Vit" Vitarelli, also referred to as Rubak in Palau, was an American educator and architect. He worked for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) from 1948 to 1970. He was stationed in various islands in Micronesia, including Palau and Ebeye, and participated in various educational and community development projects.
Iroij Namo Hermios was a Marshallese chief and politician. He served as a member of the House of Representatives of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands between 1965 and 1968, and as a member of the Marshall Islands Legislature until his death.
Marshallese nationality law is regulated by the Marshallese Constitution of 1979, as amended; the 1984 Citizenship Act of the Marshall Islands, and its revisions; and international agreements entered into by the Marshallese government. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of the Marshall Islands. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Marshallese nationality is typically obtained either on the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in the Marshall Islands or under the rules of jus sanguinis, i.e. by birth abroad to parents with Marshallese nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.
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