Palau

The Pacific state that wrote a nuclear-free clause into its constitution and spent fifteen years being pressured to remove it. Palau was settled perhaps four thousand years ago and developed a matrilineal society whose clan structure still selects traditional chiefs, along with the stone money quarried here and carried to Yap. Spain, Germany and then Japan held it in succession, and Japanese administration made Koror the capital of its entire South Seas mandate, with a civilian population outnumbering Palauans. The battle of Peleliu in 1944 was among the costliest of the Pacific war relative to its strategic value, lasting over two months for an island the Americans expected to take in four days. Under American trusteeship Palauans approved a constitution in 1979 banning nuclear weapons and material from their territory, which conflicted with the Compact of Free Association the United States wanted; seven referendums failed to produce the required supermajority to override it, amid a period of political violence including the killing of the first president. The clause was finally set aside and independence came on 1 October 1994, the last UN trust territory to end. Palau declared its entire exclusive economic zone a marine sanctuary in 2015. Tourism and fishing licences carry the economy. Rock Islands are a World Heritage site. Ngerulmud is the capital, one of the least populated capitals in the world. Jellyfish Lake holds a population of stingless jellyfish isolated from the sea. Palauan and English are official, with Japanese still an official language in one state. Palau is one of the few countries that still recognises Taiwan rather than Beijing.

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