Mapia

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Mapia
Map of Mapia
Map of Mapia
Waters Pacific Ocean
Geographical location 0 ° 55 '  N , 134 ° 18'  E Coordinates: 0 ° 55 '  N , 134 ° 18'  E
Mapia (Moluccas Papua)
Mapia
Number of islands 5
Main island Pulau Pegun
length 16 km
width 7 km
Land area 6 km²
Lagoon area 44 km²
total area 50 km²
Residents 80 (1900)
Bras island, part of the atoll, on an Indonesian postage stamp
The island of Bras, which belongs to the atoll, on an Indonesian postage stamp
Template: Infobox Atoll / Maintenance / HoeheFehlt

Mapia ( Indonesian Kepulauan Mapia ), formerly also Freewill Islands , Saint David or Güedes , is an atoll in Indonesia . It is part of the Supiori administrative district in the province of Papua and is located about 190 km north of the Indonesian city of Manokwari and about 710 km south of Koror , the largest city of Palau . It is considered the most remote group of islands in Indonesia and is particularly popular with divers. The atoll consists of the two main islands Bras and Pegun , the smaller island Fanildo and the two small islands Bras Kecil and Fanildo Kecil .

history

The atoll was probably discovered for the first time in Europe by the Spanish explorer Juan de Grijalva in 1537 and christened Güedes . English ships christened the atoll in 1861 with the name of Saint David and in 1867 with the name of Freewill . Officially, as part of Spanish East India , it was under the administration of the Viceroyalty of New Spain until 1821, and finally under the direct administration of Spain from 1821 to 1898 . As early as the 1870s, a Dutch merchant founded a branch here, so that the Dutch parliament declared the atoll as part of Dutch India in 1884 . However, after the Philippines and Guam fell to the United States in the Spanish-American War , the remaining Spanish possessions in the Pacific lost strategic value for the royal family. In the German-Spanish Treaty of 1899 , the Carolines , Marianas and Palau Islands were sold to the German Empire for 25 million pesetas , and a few years later Mapia was also officially left to the Dutch.

population

Originally, Micronesians settled here and spoke their own language, Mapian , which was closest to Woleaian . In the course of the enslavement of the inhabitants and the settlement of numerous plantation workers from the nearby island of Biak , the Micronesians assimilated to the new majority population, so that their language is now considered extinct.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Meyer's large conversation lexicon: Mapia . In: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon . Vol. 13, Leipzig 1908, p. 259.