HISTORY
Palau was initially settled
more than 4,000 years ago, probably by migrants from what today
is Indonesia. British traders became prominent visitors in the
18th century, followed by expanding Spanish influence in the 19th
century. Following its defeat in the Spanish-American War, Spain
sold Palau and most of the rest of the Caroline Islands to Germany
in 1899. Control passed to Japan in 1914 and then to the United
States under UN auspices in 1947 as part of the Trust Territory
of the Pacific Islands.
Four
of the Trust Territory districts formed a single federated Micronesian
state in 1979, but the districts of Palau and the Marshall Islands
declined to participate. Palau instead approved a new constitution
and became the Republic of Palau in 1981, signing a Compact of
Free Association with the United States in 1982. After eight referenda
and an amendment to the Palauan constitution, the Compact went
into effect on October 1, 1994, marking Palau's emergence from
trusteeship to independence.
