3.
4
~
There is a great shift of population from the outlying atolls and
islands to two major centers.
These are Ebeye, in Kwajalein atoll, and in the
Rita area of the Majuro atoll.
It is estimated that there are 12,000 Marshallese
on Majuro and approximately 8,000 on Ebeye.
These, then, constitute the two
major urban centers of population totaling approximately 20,000 Marshallese,
which would be fully 2/3 of the total population.
Social problems related to
urbanization will be discussed below.
C.
Historical Backqround
Bitter and bloody fighting between Japan and the United States during World
War II so devastated the Marshall Islands that no one would have projected that
by 1981 they would emerge as the newest among the sovereign nations of the earth.
And their population of some 30,000 on a land area of less than 70 square miles
makes this eminent development seem somewhat unique even today.
Although anthropologists differ as to the origins of those people who came
to inhabit these scattered islands and atolls of the central Pacific, historians
agree that since the 16th century they have suffered almost continuously at the
hands of invaders, colonizers, exploiters, adventurers, and missionaries.
The
myth of an idyllic, utopian soctety in the romantic South Seas drew men to them as
_iron to a magnet.
But unfortunately the
impact of these foreigners on the
Marshallese has been far from idyllic.
After Magellan discovered this part of the world for Europeans in 1520,
Spain slowly advanced her military, political, economic and religous control of
the Pacific.
But not until the 19th century were the Marshalls made a part of her
vast imperial holdings in any formal sense.
And her control was so weak that an
aggressive Germany seized control of the Marshalls later in the century.
German administration encouraged the development of trade and established
copra production as the economic base for the Marshalls.
Although a limited
public works program was commenced by Germany, this was abruptly terminated by
World War I wnen an expansionist Japan seized control.
In 1922 the League of Nations formally granted Japan a mandate over the
Marshalls,
which
administration.
time.
was
soon
followed
by
the
establishment
of
a
civilian
Under firm Japanese control the economy prospered for the first
Thus, older citizens still
remember the Japanese with some fondness
because jobs were abundant and education, modern agriculture, improved fishing
techniques, and modern communication systems were introduced.