The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is a nation-state composed entirely of small islands lying just north of the equator, and extending across the Pacific Ocean for 1,000 miles midway between Hawaii and the Philippines. The islands are grouped into four states: Yap, Chuuk (Truk), Pohnpei (Ponape), and Kosrae (Kusaie). The population of approximately 110,000 speaks what are for the most part closely related Micronesian and Polynesian languages. All the states except Kosrae include both larger volcanic islands, which serve as population and administrative centers, and smaller coral atolls.

The islands were originally settled about two thousand years ago by voyagers traveling from eastern Melanesia (now the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu); their earliest ancestors were Southeast Asian in origin. The islands traded extensively with whalers and were Christianized by American missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century; claimed by the Spanish, although not occupied by them...