Palau – from ancient islanders through colonial rule to independence
Palau was settled thousands of years ago by seafarers from island Southeast Asia. Its people developed a society based on matrilineal clans and village councils, with distinctive meeting houses called bai. Islanders from Yap quarried their famous stone money in Palau's limestone islands.
European ships passed by from the 16th century, and closer contact began after the British ship Antelope was wrecked on Palau's reefs in 1783. Spain claimed the islands in the late 19th century and sold them to Germany in 1899. At the start of the First World War Japan took control, and Palau later became the administrative centre of Japan's South Seas Mandate, with many Japanese settlers. In 1944 the island of Peleliu was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War.
After the war Palau became part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, administered by the United States. In 1981 its own constitution came into force, notable for seeking to keep nuclear weapons off its territory. After several referendums, a Compact of Free Association with the United States took effect, and in 1994 Palau became independent and joined the United Nations.
Today Palau is shaped by its clan traditions, its close bond with the ocean, a pioneering commitment to marine conservation and its ties with the United States and neighbouring Pacific nations.
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