The Republic of the Marshall Islands, or Marshall Islands for short, is located in the North Pacific Ocean and belongs to the Micronesian island group. The name comes from the British captain John Charles Marshall, who came here in 1788 to survey. The Marshall Islands are 181 square kilometers (half the size of Pingtan County), making it the third smallest country in Oceania; The Marshall Islands is not formally divided into administrative districts, but can be divided into 26 legislative constituencies. With a population of 56,000 in 2020 (one-seventh of the population of Pingtan County), Micronesians make up 98 percent, with most of them taller and light brown skin.
(1) Marshall Islanders first came from China
The Marshall People, the main ethnic group of the Marshall Islands, are a branch of the Micronesians and belong to the Austronesian language family. Anthropologists generally believe that around 5000 BC, Austronesian language-speaking peoples began to migrate from the southeast coast of China to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, and then south to Papua and the Solomon Islands.
(2) One of the three countries whose name is "archipelago"
Of the 197 countries in the world, there are only 3 countries with "archipelagos", all located in Oceania, the Marshall Islands being one of them, and the other two being the Solomon Islands and the Cook Islands. There was originally an "archipelago" state, and the Republic of Fiji Islands removed the "archipelago" in 2009 and renamed it the Republic of Fiji. The Republic of the Marshall Islands can actually be renamed "Marshall Republic" by removing the "archipelago", especially its English name "the Republic of the Marshall Islands" is too wordy.
(3) A free association of the United States
The Marshall Islands were administered by Spain, Germany, Japan and the United States. In 1947, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands and Palau formed the four political entities of the Pacific Island Trust. In 1983, the Marshall Islands signed the Treaty of Free Association with the United States, in which the Marshall Islands government gained autonomy in internal and foreign affairs, and the United States was responsible for security and defense for 15 years, and could participate in regional organizations, but not in the United Nations. In 1991, the Marshall Islands joined the United Nations. In 2003, the Marshall Islands renewed the Treaty of Free Association with the United States, extending the treaty for 20 to 2023, and is likely to be extended again after expiration. Marshall Islands nationals are not U.S. citizens and cannot participate in U.S. elections, but are free to come and go to the U.S., live, study, and work in the U.S., and join the U.S. Military without a visa.
(4) The most scattered country in the world
The Marshall Islands' marine exclusive economic zone covers an area of 2 million square kilometers, more than 10,000 times its land area, and the ratio of exclusive economic zone to land area ranks third in the world, after Tuvalu and Nauru, making it one of the most dispersed countries in the world. The Marshall Islands have the 19th largest exclusive economic zone in the world of 197 countries, slightly smaller than India and Norway, while having much less land area than the latter.
(5) Presidential republics
The Marshall Islands is a presidential republic, the president is the head of state and head of government, elected by Parliament. Iroji (equivalent to chief) has an important say in issues related to land, traditional culture, social customs, etc.
(6) The third largest ship registered country in the world
The Marshall Islands is the world's third largest ship registry after Panama, with 4,163 ships registered in the Marshall Islands in 2021, with a total tonnage of 178.99 million tons, second only to the Bahamas and Libya. The Marshall Islands registration process is simple, efficient and inexpensive, and the Paris Memorandum and Tokyo Memorandum are both whitelisted flags.
(7) Japanese female soldiers married local natives
In the Battle of the Marshall Islands in 1944, the U.S. army captured nearly 10,000 Japanese female soldiers. Because the U.S. military prohibits the mistreatment of prisoners, and cannot transfer them to the U.S. mainland in time, coupled with the death of a large number of local natives, the U.S. military eventually sent these prisoners to the local natives as wives, killing three birds with one stone. Since the local natives were still "barbarians" and did not know Japanese, most of these captives were treated as slaves, and the fate of which can be imagined.
(8) The Pacific Proving Ground in the United States
The United States has conducted more than 1,000 nuclear tests, mostly in and around the continental United States and the Marshall Islands, including the first hydrogen bomb, Ivy Mike, at Enewetak Atoll in 1952 and the Castle Bravo in 1954 at Bikini Atoll. The "Ivy Mike" explosion power is equivalent to 10 million tons of TNT equivalent, which is 500 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The explosion power of the "Cheer Castle" is equivalent to 15 million tons of TNT equivalent, and the explosion temperature of up to 55,000 degrees Celsius has instantly vaporized the nearby island into a large deep lake nearly 2,000 meters wide and 80 meters deep. To store large amounts of contaminated soil, the United States built a huge concrete dome structure on Runit Island in 1980, known locally as a "grave" and by United Nations Secretary-General Guterres as a "coffin."
(9) The name bikini swimsuit comes from Bikini Atoll
The English name of Bikini Atoll (Bikini) is named after the locals' name "Pikinni", which means "coconut island" in Marshallese, Pik means "land", and Ni means "coconut". In July 1946, the U.S. military conducted its first nuclear test at Bikini Atoll, and its huge destructive power shocked the entire world. Louis Réard, a French designer in Paris, named his "three-point" swimsuit "bikini," and dancer Micheline Bernardini later showed it off in a public pool in Paris. Because this swimsuit is quite exposed, it completely breaks through the traditional thinking bottom line of people at that time, and also shocks the fashion industry.
(10) Alternative World Heritage Sites
Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 23 nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, with a total explosive yield of 7,000 times the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, with serious impacts on the geology, natural environment and health of people exposed to radiation at Bikini Atoll. Bikini Atoll became a symbol of the advent of the Atomic Age, although the peaceful and heavenly landscape of the atoll is very different from this symbol. For these reasons, Bikini Atoll was inscribed on the World Heritage List in July 2010.
The Marshall Islands have a backward economy and are generally small, relying on the United States, Japan, the European Union and Taiwan for more than 60% of fiscal spending. The total GDP in 2020 was $230 million, and the per capita GDP was $4,070, less than one-half of the continent's per capita GDP. In the United Nations Human Development Report 2019, the Marshall Islands ranks 117th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index, which is at the level of developing countries. In terms of size, population and economic size, the Marshall Islands are only equivalent to a small county or township on the mainland.
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