The Federated States of Micronesia: Control, Self Preservation and Continuity

Abstract

The history of the people of the Federated States of Micronesia’s engagement with the outside world has been a neglected area of academic scholarship. Historians often treated the topic as a footnote since Micronesians were perceived as unseen participants of colonial processes. To this end indigenous perspective of history has been absent from the main corpus of historical literature. Despite the distorted nature of imperial history, which portrayed Micronesians as poor savages, and unsophisticated people, there is an emerging trend of historical discourse contradicting these images. This PhD dissertation argues that Micronesians have been dealing successfully with the outside world since the colonisation period. This argument is sustained by examination of oral histories, secondary sources, personal experience, interviews, and field research to reconstruct how Micronesian internal processes continued rather than succumbing to the different waves of colonisation. For example, colonisation did not destroy Micronesian cultures and identities, but instead Micronesians recontextualised the changing conditions to suit their own circumstances. Their success rests on the doctrines of adaptation, assimilation, and accommodation deeply rooted in the kinship doctrine of eaea fengen (sharing) and alilis fengen (assisting each other). Micronesians inhabit an oceanic environment of small islands and big seas. This oceanic world necessitated inter-island contact that crisscrosses the seas following the web of the expansive ainang (clanship) system. An oceanic civilization had already flourished, rich in maritime activities and infrastructure, knowledge and skills of seafaring, warfare, canoe technology, fishing techniques, and conservation practices to perpetuate Micronesian continuity. This oceanic outlook also contained effective mechanisms for dealing with a host of unheralded external influences from beyond the horizon such as China’s emerging influence in the Pacific and the impact of climate change on the Federated States of Micronesia. Micronesians perceived such influences as challenges and opportunities to shape and reshape their societies through the processes of accommodation and later assimilation for the purposes of adapting to the changing circumstances brought by the four colonial powers. As colonisation intensified, Micronesians began to organise themselves against outsiders’ oppression. Reassertion of independence was the main objective. The opportunity arose post World War II (WWII) when the process of decolonization began. The Constitution of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) was formally established for the purpose of defining the modern identity of the indigenous people; it is reasserting and perpetuating Micronesian values and continuity. Show more